The Dead Never Die

by Bajaña, Edgar

  Purge of the Vampires (Book 2)

  The Dead Never Die

  Edgar Bajaña

  EdgarBajana.com

  Purge of the Vampires (Book 2) The Dead Never Die © 2018 by James A. Bajaña

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Let’s Connect

  EdgarBajana.com

  For Ellis

  Count those ancient stones and you will know who you are. Some are heavier than others, but always remember that none are out of reach.

  Then the Lord said to the Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt." So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days.

  - Exodus 10:21:23

  Contents

  Let’s Connect

  Part I

  1. Missing Case File Of Charlene Harris

  2. Dark Voices from the Black

  3. Calvary Cemetery

  4. Floating Body Parts

  5. Before A Field Of Corpses

  6. Even Dead Birds Sing

  7. The Cemetery Whispers To Him

  8. No Rest For The Dead

  9. They're Coming For Us

  Part II

  10. The Night Bred Hate

  11. Joe and Mary

  12. What She Thought was Love

  13. So Close To Night

  14. By Her Right Ear

  15. The Dead Never Forgot Us

  16. He Squeezed All The Love Out Of Her

  17. The Night Had Turned On Us

  18. The Boy's Eyes Widen

  19. Don't Leave Me

  20. Even In Death

  21. Pale Face

  22. Deep Down Inside

  23. By Her Right Ear

  24. On Blades of Grass

  25. Oh my farrow. Oh my love.

  26. The Wall Of Nothingness

  27. Inside The Cold Earth

  28. A Dead Man Hangs In the Office

  29. He Wanted Me to Have You

  30. Forgetting Was Simple

  31. Marble and Stone

  32. There Was Something That I Remembered

  33. Abandoned & Broken

  Let’s Connect

  Part One

  One

  Missing Case File Of Charlene Harris

  The last time that James and Charlene spoke was in his apartment, when they broke up.

  James said no more to her and stayed quiet for a bit. He hated talking about his condition with Charlene. He wasn't used to it. He had kept this part of his life a secret a long time because he didn't want to feel like a freak. He wanted to spare her from the horrible things that he started to witness.

  However, James couldn't stay quiet because he didn't want Charlene to leave him. He'd be lost without her. They had been friends for more than a year.

  She wants to know more. That's all, he thought.

  So, James searched for one more thing that could satisfy her, at least for now.

  "Charlene, I don't know what else to tell you."

  "It's okay James talk to me."

  "Sometimes I see things that other people can't."

  "Yes. Talk to me, James. What is it that you see. Who is it that you see? What is haunting you, and therefore us? Don't you understand that? It's important that I know, so that we have a chance to make it through this."

  "I do. But, stop pushing me. That's all I can say right now. I can't really talk about this stuff, not right now. Tomorrow."

  "Please, James. Don't make me leave you. I swear to god that I will, if you don't get professional help."

  James didn't want to say more. But, there was something that bothered him about the nightmare he just had. Something about it wasn't right. He felt an urge to talk it through with Charlene. So, he let his guard down a little and opened up to her. He kissed her forehead and told her.

  “Okay Charlene. Ever since I could remember, I can see the spirit of people who have recently died. I don't know why. But, I just can."

  "Like zombies."

  James smiled. "No. Not like zombies. It's more like watching their spirit walk the earth for a little while and then they disappear. I don't know where they go when their gone. But when they leave, they leave through a passage of light and that's it."

  "So what do they look like?"

  "Well. Not to long ago, they looked like they did when they were alive. Except there was this white glow that radiated from inside them. But, they don't look like that now."

  "What do they look like now, then?"

  "Now, their light is gone."

  "What do you mean?"

  "They look grotesque, like there is a darkness over taking them, as if something has suck the light out of them. I don't know what it is exactly. They just don't look right. Not like before."

  James and Charlene stood in silence, as the street lights illuminated their face.

  Charlene tried to believe every word that he spoke. But, it was difficult. She thought that the nature of his problem was psychological. It had to be. If it was, it could be cured. And his eyes could be treated medically with surgery.

  "James you can make it through this," she told him.

  Right now, Charlene was worried for his safety. She was scared that one of his hallucinations would drive him crazy and make him jump out a window, or something. She was his friend and had to keep him safe, even if it meant committing him to a psychiatric ward.

  Another tear fell. She held his hands and spoke to him as tenderly as possible. She pleaded.

  "I know that things are difficult for you James. But, I need you to pretend that you don't see those things, anymore."

  "I wish I could. But, I can't."

  "Why James?"

  "There's something weird going on out there. Weren't you listening to me? It's like something is sucking the light of out the dead and keeping them from passing into the light."

  Charlene stayed quiet. To be honest, she didn't really want hear about his delusions, anymore. It was all too strange for her. Besides, there was a limit to what she would put up with. She was more certain than ever that James needed psychiatric help. She could no longer reason with him, so she appealed to his heart.

  "What about us James? You have to get help, if we're going to make it."

  "I can handle it."

  "That's what you say now."

  "Please believe me. I can handle it."

  "Look at your eyes for Christ sakes!"

  "My eyes are fine. I see perfectly, as if they were normal."

  "They're not, James."

  "They just look different. That's all. I'm still the same person."

  "Damn it James! Look at your eyes in the mirror and tell me that you are all right!"

  "I'll be fine. I have contact lenses. I can look like everyone else, if I want."

  All James wanted was for her to believe him. So, they could continue where they lefty off.

  "James. You're seeing things that aren't even there. Things that aren't even real. Don't you care about how that effects us."

  "I..."

  James crumbled inside and felt disappointed in Charlene for doubting him. He even started to doubt himself.

  But, he didn't want to lose her. It was true. He had hurt her in his sleep and he needed help. She was right. He had to start listening to her, if they were going to make it.

  As he held her, he looked at himself in the full length mirror leaning on the wall. He thou
ght about his eyes that were as white as milk. His eyes did look different, almost alien. James thought his contact lenses could hide his secret from everyone. He thought he could look normal and fit in and pretend he was still the same person. But, he wasn't.

  "James. You have to get help."

  James said nothing.

  "You can't get better on your own."

  "They'll send me to the crazy house for sure. They'll take me away. You know that. Is that what you want."

  "No. I want you to get better. Either way, you have to be honest with yourself, James. Everyone loves to lie to themselves. That's easy. But you can't live like that forever. No one can live with a lie like that for so long and not crack under the pressure."

  "And who will believe my story?"

  "I will, if you get help."

  "That's what I'm scared of, Charlene. I'm scared that we will never be the same, after others know about me."

  She refrained herself from saying that it was already too late.

  "I don't think so James. We've been friends too long for things to change between us. We'll always be friends."

  James remained quiet. The word - friend - echoed in his ear. He knew it was over, regardless what he choose to do.

  "For now, just pretend that you don't see them. Can you do that, James? Can you do that for us?"

  "I would love to. But, it's easier said than done. Believe me Charlene, I want us to have a normal life, together."

  "And I do too. I want us to be together. But, We can't, right now."

  "Why?"

  "Because you won't get help."

  "I know. But, I have to go out there. I have a job to do. I have a case to work on. It's one of the most important cases in my life."

  "What case? Stop it James! Please stop it, for Christ's sakes!"

  "Please Charlene. I thought I could talk to you?"

  Charlene looked up at him and knew not what to say. James was going mad. She stayed quiet for a moment.

  "What case, James? My father hasn't assigned a case to you and he never will."

  "Why?"

  "Because I told him about your condition."

  "…about my eyes?"

  "Yes. Of course. He's my father. I spoke to him yesterday. I had to tell him about the stress you're under. And it is getting worse. You need a break, James. You need to find help."

  James stayed quiet and looked at the moon. He no where else to go, but inside himself. The moon was bright and full.

  He would do anything for Charlene. But, it wasn't easy. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't pretend that he was like everyone else.

  "So, tell me, James. What is this grand case that my father has you working on?"

  James turned his attention to the vodka bottle that spilled over his books. It was obvious that his life was a mess and that he needed help. All this time, James made his personal life second to the job. But, he always promised himself that he would change things around, soon. And soon became tomorrow and tomorrow always became later.

  With Charlene in his life, he was determined to change and everything else in his world would follow.

  "Tell me damn it!"

  "Charlene, there's a woman whose gone missing."

  "And? Do you know how many people go missing in this city, everyday."

  "She going to die and there is nothing that I can do about it."

  "Who?"

  "I can't really say."

  "When?"

  "I don't know when or where. But, there is nothing I can do to stop it. She's as good as dead."

  "My father didn't say anything about this to me. What is it, some kind of stalker case, that the precinct picked up? How do you know, James?"

  James looked over at the full length mirror and he saw his eyes glowing with the light of the moon.

  "Charlene, you hadn't heard of this case because I just found out myself."

  "When?"

  "Tonight."

  "You spoke to him before I got here? Why would he even call you?"

  "No, Charlene. Your father doesn't even know about this case yet."

  "Then, how do you know?"

  "The case came to me, tonight, as I tossed and turned in my sleep."

  "You can't be serious."

  "I am serious. It was more like a vision, Charlene."

  "God damn it James! Your not a detective. Your just a clerk, a lowly clerk."

  "But..."

  "I don't want to hear it. Stay with me James. I do love you. But, don't go into that world! What about me? What about us?"

  "I don't have a choice Charlene."

  "If you go, I'm gone."

  "But, I have to make sure that she has a good death. I have to make sure that she can move in to the next world through a passage of light."

  Charlene walked over to the dinner table.

  "Charlene?"

  Her black dress hung on the back of a chair and she snatched up.

  "I have to make sure that her soul doesn't spend an eternity in darkness, Charlene."

  Charlene put on her black dress and slipped into her black sneakers. The whole time, she ignored James.

  He's not right. He needs help, she thought. But I can't stay. I can't give into his delusion.

  "Charlene, I have to make sure that nothing happens to her. Please believe me. Come back."

  Charlene stormed to the front door of the loft, unlocked it and hung by the door, before it closed.

  "I have to help her, Charlene."

  She turned back to look at James through the crack of the steel door.

  "Why James?"

  "Because…"

  At the end of there, Charlene left him. She didn't want to hear another word from James. All she heard was him rationalizing madness. There was nothing that she could do to help him. It was useless. It was over between them.

  James hung by the window of his loft in the dark.

  "because...I have to make sure that nothing happens to you,"

  As James looked outside his window, he watched Charlene cross Second Avenue and get into her car. As she drove back home down an empty street, he thought about his dream. He thought about the dark figures lurking inside the cemetery feeding off of Charlene's spirit and keeping her in an eternal darkness. If he didn't try to help her, he was afraid that his nightmare could come true.

  Most of them always did. He hoped that this one didn't.

  James watched her car disappear down the block, heading for the Queens Borough Bridge, back to Queens

  "I have to try, Charlene. Even if you no longer love me. I have to try."

  Two

  Dark Voices from the Black

  As the sun fell behind the skyscrapers of Manhattan, James Night stared into Calvary Cemetery in Queens. At the time, a large black man, named Brutus, held a pistol against James's spine. Both their faces were in shadow by the side ways light of the receding sun. Both men stood on a slightly caved-in roof of a NYPD squad car.

  James looked out into the cemetery and saw what most people in the neighborhood had forgot. New Calvary Cemetery was a place named after the mountain where Jesus was crucified, "Mount Calvary," a place outside the walls of Jerusalem . The cemetery was vast, about 350 acres, and stretched along a portion of the Long Island Expressway, where the Brooklyn Queens Expressway crosses its path. Since the outbreak of the cholera epidemic in 1847, Calvary Cemetery had grown to hold more than three million dead inside its black gates. At the time, there were more people buried in this cemetery, than there were people living in the City of Chicago.

  What I'm I suppose to be looking for out here?" James kept asking himself.

  Detective James Night could no longer keep his thoughts away from death. The case was going nowhere and he had a field of coffins in front of him. Out of frustration, he ripped up the picture of the missing girl. In another 24 hours, she was as good as gone.

  James stood on the police car thinking about the Missing Ones and the horrible things that were probably happening to
them.

  He knew that certain people could turn into monstrous predators. Sometimes, the city itself turned into a vicious machine, a meat grinder, when it wanted to be. With his last case, James had seen the city at its worst. He dared not think about it again. He dared not repeat what he saw in a pool of blood.

  James wondered, if the disappearances were all the act of one person? Was it a serial killer that hunted woman down under the cover of night? Where did this killer take them to kill them? Where did he dispose of the bodies? Why did he pick them? What it random? All that James had were questions and no answers. The night was full of dark things.

  James checked down the street with his binoculars. There was nothing, only a traffic sign and a single jogger. Then, he scanned the cemetery. Suddenly, he spotted something out of the ordinary, something moving among the tombstones.

  "What da?"

  There shouldn't be anyone in the cemetery. It was closed for the entire day. Earlier, he passed by the cemetery gates to make sure they were locked. But now, there was something inside.

  Instantly, James felt a rush of excitement and fear, mixed together.

  James thought about what he saw and a strange went through him. He felt sick, like the bottom of his stomach falling out.

  Whatever he saw, it was bloody and hideous. James searched for it again, but to no avail. He looked harder. But the cemetery was quiet and still, once again.