Damon

by Vanessa Hawkes

  “We’ll be okay,” I told him.

  Damon stood, and the room must have taken a spin because he stumbled back, shaking the table as he caught himself.

  I rushed over and helped him sit again. “Stay still,” I ordered.

  “Oh, god, we have to hurry,” he said, moaning.

  “Hurry where? We have to get you to the clinic. You’re hurt.”

  “No hospitals. They’ll discover Damon’s secret. They’ll lock him up.”

  “It’s not a hospital, it’s a clinic,” I told him firmly. “We’re going there. Like it or not. Then, we’ll go anywhere and do anything you want.”

  “It’s this human form,” he said. “I’m weak in human form. I need to resume my vampire form to have strength and powers. We have to get back to the portal before it’s too late. If the portal closes, we’ll never get home.”

  We couldn’t do anything until he was healed. I made him stay at the table again while I quickly finished up the kitchen, then I needed to run home, get our things and then bring his car around. “Where did you hide your car?”

  My old car was on its last leg and we needed something dependable for the climb into the mountains.

  “Yeah. It’s uh….” He pointed in one direction, then another. “I left it behind the old… place. The old… it’s a gray building called a….”

  “The Taylors old barn?”

  He shrugged.

  Across from Corky’s, through a light patch of woods, was the Taylors crumbling old barn. That had to be it. I took a better look at his glazed eyes. He’d taken something, probably diazepam, to combat the stress, and now he was zoning out.

  I couldn’t bring myself to scold him. His father, a murderer, had just died.

  He caught my wrist as I was about to leave.

  His eyes seemed to brighten slightly. “It’s time for us to run away to the mountains. This is the time. Once we’re there, everything will be wonderful. We’ll have our cabin in the woods. We’ll have a future. Everything will be perfect.”

  “Yeah, I know, but you have to be able to walk in a straight line.” I was worried about the knot and bruising on his cheek, and the blood swimming on the underside of his eye. We’d get him checked over. My ankle ached from when I’d almost fallen down the stairs, and I thought I might have it looked at while we were there. We needed to be in good health before we headed off to the mountains. Once we were there, we might never return to civilization.

  I didn’t have the courage to predict the future.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  We left the clinic an hour later. My ankle wasn’t serious and only required an icepack. Damon, though, had to stay for an x-ray.

  When he came out of the exam room, James Eddie was behind him, which surprised me. Then a doctor and nurse and a deputy. The cops must have come in the back, maybe with the body, and instantly I was afraid they had decided to arrest Damon, after all.

  James Eddie’s face was blank and serious, as always, revealing nothing. I focused on Damon. His cheek was bruised, the doctor said, but the bone wasn’t cracked. He’d be fine.

  “Oh, good.” I held onto the back of his shirt and glanced over my shoulder at James Eddie.

  “Don’t worry, lil bit,” he said. “We didn’t come after you two. We just needed some questions answered. You both’ll need to stay put for a few days, till we get this situation all cleared up.”

  I nodded, though I knew Damon wouldn’t want to wait another hour, let alone a few days.

  “Are y’all moving back home?”

  “Maybe. If Cynthia will take us.”

  James Eddie laughed and at last I knew that we were okay, and that we’d get away to the mountains, and no one would persecute us again, at least not before we could leave town.

  ***

  We were packed and ready to go, but I had to make two quick stops before we left town. First, we stopped in on Mama at the nursing home. Damon stayed in the car. The sedatives he’d taken were still working and he was enjoying a nice glaze, drifting in and out with his face in the morning sunlight. I made a mental note to try to find his bottle of pills later, and hide them. I was sure he was taking too many. And probably shouldn’t have been taking them at all.

  But I had other things to worry about first.

  Mama had been settled in and Cynthia had stopped by to deliver her personal things. I tried to speak to her, to tell her all that had happened, and where we were going, but she sat in a wheelchair so dazed she could barely keep her eyes open. If she knew I was there, she gave no indication.

  I promised her I’d do my best to find a cure for her and then left in a hurry before I completely broke down. She hadn’t been the best mother in the world, and at times had been terrifying and abusive. But she was still my mother. And she was in the best place now, with people to watch over her. I couldn’t take care of her anymore. I knew she wouldn’t miss me. It was too late for her.

  Next, I stopped in to see Chester and Bella at the drugstore. I had to quit my job. It broke my heart to do it, because that job had been my lifeline for years. I’d started there part time at sixteen and went full time right after high school graduation. Moving toward an unknown future was suddenly terrifying.

  I went in the back door to avoid running into customers who might want some gossip. I’d had to lie my butt off to Mrs. Wainwright at the clinic, claiming I hadn’t seen anything when she’d started in on me like a reporter wanting all the juicy details of the shootout at Corky’s.

  I’d lived in this town my entire life and knew the drill all too well. Whoever got the details first would be practically famous for a day.

  I didn’t have to share my deepest thoughts and feelings with people I only knew by name and sight. These same people had spread rumors about Mama and me my entire life. They had looked down on us, scorned us, and made my life extremely painful many, many times over the years.

  Scared though I was of an unknown future, I was glad to be leaving. This town had been a blessing and a curse in my life. It protected and punished equally. And I was tired of the scrutiny.

  Bella burst into tears when she saw me and pulled me in for a hug. “We heard everything,” she said, sniffing into a tissue. “I just can’t believe it. This nightmare will never end.”

  I was trying my best not to remember that I’d seen a man killed only a few hours before. It wasn’t easy. Tending to Damon and taking care of final details helped. But now I saw it all again, I could hear and smell it all again. Bella’s face became Richard Jenkins’ haggard, lifeless face.

  “Mama’s safe in the nursing home, at least,” I said.

  She nodded and pulled on my arm, leading me into the office. “Where’s Davy? Or Damon?”

  “He’s asleep in the car.”

  Chester saw me through the glass window and came to give me a hug. “Verna called and told us everything. Thank heavens she saw Ricky go into Corky’s house and called James Eddie. No telling who he might have killed next. David, for one.”

  I sat down in the chair across from the desk to hide from the view of anyone in the store. “She didn’t mention that,” I said. And I wished she had so I could have thanked her. She’d probably saved Damon’s life. And mine. I’d been heading over there to meet Damon and would have walked right into Richard Jenkins’ furry, demented hands.

  “Well,” Bella said, “she was pretty shaken up. She caught him trying to break in her back door. He ran when she turned on the porch light. She thought she was seeing the devil beast from the cave. She nearly had a heart attack.”

  I sat shaking my head in disbelief. “We were with her this morning. She never said a word about it.”

  “She probably didn’t want to upset Davy.”

  I nearly burst into tears myself. I owed Verna a world of thanks.

  But I steeled myself and pressed on. Perhaps the trauma of the day had given me the strength to face up to this situation. I had to focus on getting this heartbreaking business over with so Damon
and I could get on the road.

  Neither Chester or Bella were happy to hear I was leaving, but to my surprise, they didn’t object. Bella cried and Chester teared up, hugging me again, so tightly I could barely breathe. But I didn’t object. I focused on setting this moment in my memory so I would never forget.

  They seemed to understand that whether any of us liked it, or wanted to accept it, Damon and I were different. We had unnatural blood in us, and we had to find our own kind. Or go crazy trying. The time had come.

  The incident with Richard Jenkins had really opened my eyes. If we didn’t do something fast, we’d end up just like him, just like Mama. Our fates had been sealed the day we were born.

  Damon was determined to change our fates, and now, instead of reluctantly and doubtfully tagging along, I was just as determined. I didn’t want to be a crazy beast in a red suit murdering people. Maybe killing the people I loved. I’d rather die first.

  “You were both always just like my own real grandparents,” I told them. Then, I rushed to make my escape.

  As I was trying to flee before I collapsed into a puddle of tears, and had made it to the car door, Bella trotted out after me.

  “Honey, wait a minute,” she said, tilting her head to look at Damon. “Oh, good, he’s asleep. Listen. I wanted to give you this.” She slid the heavy envelope into my hands. “Chester said not to give it to you, but I don’t think it’s our decision to make.” She gave my hand a squeeze. “Just keep a level head, Maggie, and be safe. Call when you can so we don’t worry.”

  I assured her I would and then, with a hiccup, she turned and trotted back inside.

  I knew I would never see them again.

  Damon woke when I settled behind the wheel and shut the door. “What took so long?” he mumbled, watching me through one lazy eye and one swollen eye.

  “I had to say goodbye.”

  “It doesn’t hurt that he’s gone.”

  A moment passed before I realized he was talking about his father. “You’re still in shock. I think I am, so you must be. It’s normal to be in shock.”

  “He used to hit me all the time,” Damon said, giving the car door a punch with the side of his fist. “Every day, when he was home. Then he was gone for so many years, I forgot about him. I wanted to forget. I’m glad he’s gone. I really am. It’s Granddad I miss. He left me all alone.”

  I reached over, took his hand, and held it against my chest. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about it. That usually helps me. Just put it out of your mind.”

  “I’m not forgiving like you,” he continued, deciding to ignore my advice. “I couldn’t forgive him. If I hadn’t had Granddad I’d be just like him.”

  “I think you did forgive him. I noticed how well you handled Mama. You were never resentful or hateful toward her, so you must have forgiven him, and known he couldn’t control it.”

  He threw his head back against the headrest in an expression of fatigue and anger. “He killed my mother. He thought the devil was inside her so he killed her. I watched him do it. I didn’t try to help her. I hid and watched him beat her to death.”

  My god. “You were just a little kid. Five years old. He’d have killed you, too. What could you have done?”

  “Let him kill me.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t.”

  “I don’t like this,” he said. “I don’t like these memories. They make me hurt all over. I can feel it all. As if it all happened to me. But it didn’t. It happened to David Jenkins. I’m Damon Jennings.”

  I leaned in close, hoping he could really hear me. “From right now,” I told him, “from this moment forward, let’s start over. Let’s put it all behind us and start over. Just you and me. No past.”

  “Okay,” he mumbled as his head fell back to the headrest and he closed his eyes. “Time to run. Time to start over.”

  I looked down at the weighted envelope in my lap. The distinct outline of a book could be seen. Elliot’s novel. I didn’t really see how it would help now, but I thought Damon might like to have it, just to keep something of his granddad.

  I started the car and set off, rushing to get through town without thinking of all I was leaving.

  Now all we had to do was get out of town without being stopped. James Eddie had ordered us to stay in town for a few days. But we couldn’t wait. Damon was right. The time had come to run.

  I could only relax when the highway to the interstate stretched out before us.

  No one followed.

  ***

  We were almost to Knoxville when Damon struggled to sit up and see where we were. “Head to the cave,” he said.

  I’d been driving in a focused daze and hoped he would stay awake and keep me company. I wasn’t sure how much farther I could go. My day had already been long and traumatic, and I was foggy, in no condition to drive safely.

  “We need to fill the gas tank and stop somewhere,” I said. “I’m too tired to drive.”

  He took my right hand off the wheel and stroked the vein on my wrist with his lips. “We need to drink.”

  A dark wave of dread passed over me and I took my hand away. The events of the day had sobered me, and I didn’t want to do crazy things anymore. Not for as long as I knew I was doing them, anyway. Eventually I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but for now, I could. Or, at least I thought I could. I wanted to be normal for a while.

  Just because I craved the drug didn’t mean I had to take it. I could resist. I’d done it for years. I should never have given in to the temptation.

  But Damon had made it all seem too beautiful and right. Not just right, but righteous. And necessary.

  Convincing Damon to stop would be the real battle.

  “How do you feel?” I asked.

  He sat back, holding onto my hand. “Like I’ve been dreaming for twenty years. Like I’m dreaming still.”

  “How’s your head?”

  He looked worse now than he had before. The bruises had darkened and blood still danced around the underside of his eye.

  “Nothing hurts,” he said. “Keep heading east till I tell you to get off.”

  He was injured, still drugged and only half awake, and still he couldn’t stop chasing his demons. I knew I had to take control.

  At the next motel sign, I turned off the interstate. “Tomorrow. Tonight, we need to rest.”

  “Yeah,” he mumbled. “Tomorrow we’ll be whole again.”

  Physically, maybe, but not mentally. I wasn’t sure we’d ever been whole, truly, but if we had been, odds were, we would never be whole again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  When we reached the mountains the next morning, it was raining. I’d called the nursing home to check in on Mama before we left only to learn she’d died during the night. Her heart had given out on her. I knew I needed to go home for the funeral. I knew that was the right thing to do. I knew everyone would expect me. But after an hour of pacing and trying to make myself cry, I decided not to go home. I’d already said goodbye to her. She’d been gone even before we’d left town.

  Cynthia had done that to her, had ruined her already fragile health, so I decided to let Cynthia deal with her death.

  At least she’d gone peacefully instead of in a hail of gunfire.

  Damon wanted to go on and find the cave, but I was tired and upset and I didn’t want to go traipsing around unfamiliar woods in the rain. So I found a motel room where we could rest. We both needed at least one more day to recuperate.

  The town was small and slow and we were the only patrons of the rundown motel.

  That night, while I read Elliot’s book, Damon sat at the table fussing over the map his granddad had drawn, trying to compare it to a state road map. He wasn’t having much luck. He kept grumbling and tapping his pen against the map.

  “You know what,” I said, snapping the book closed as soon as I’d read the last page. “Sarah was stupid.”

  Damon barely glanced at me. “Who?”

  “In your
granddad’s book. Sarah should have gone with Damien through the portal. I’ll bet she ended up like Verna, missing him forever, nothing left but a picture to look at, fooling herself into thinking she sees his ghost. I’ll bet she never got over him. Forever sad.”

  I wondered then if maybe Elliot had based Sarah’s character on Verna Jarvis, to some extent. And I realized then why no one had ever really spoken of her husband. The subject was too painful.

  “Your dad and my mom died almost at the same time,” I said, speaking of painful subjects, which I wanted to forget, but couldn’t seem to. “That’s weird. From birth, your dad and my mom were connected. And from birth, you and I have been connected.”

  “Forever,” Damon said.

  “Yeah.” One by one, my family had been stripped away from me and all that remained was Damon. Forever.

  With a growl, he crumpled up the road map, threw it, then sat back in the chair, breathing heavily. “The roads aren’t on the stupid map.”

  I set aside the book and went to help. I took the hand-drawn map to the secret village, which I’d only had the chance to glance at until now, and sat down on the edge of the bed to study it. Immediately, I saw the problem.

  “Road A, Road B, Road Yellow, Road Green. These aren’t actual names. He wrote it in code. We need a code key.”

  Damon shot up and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

  I fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. I knew where the secret village was. I knew where it had to be. But, I didn’t want to tell Damon. He’d kill us both before morning.

  The secret village could only be found on the other side, after death. The village where our family lived was where the dead lived.

  Actually, I was amazed Damon hadn’t figured it out for himself yet. He would. And then, he’d decide we needed to die.