by Matt Kincade
We Only Come Out At Night
By Matthew Kincade
Copyright © 2014 by Matthew Kincade
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Keep up with Matt at his blog, Matthew Kincade
For Briana,
thanks for the encouragement.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
About the Author
Chapter One
At first there were five of us. Those were the good times.
Saul was first. He was older than the rest of us. A lot older. He never said exactly where he came from. Michael was next. He was older than me, but not that much. He was two years ahead of me back in high school. He made Nadia and David, and David made me. My name is Paul.
Nadia, David and I were in the same grade in high school. We all hung out back then. We were the weird kids on campus, the ones who wore black shirts and eyeliner and dyed our hair black-number-one like in that Type O Negative song. We thought we were tough shit back then, sitting at our cafeteria table and scowling at everyone. We thought it was us against the world.
I hated high school—and thank god I'm done with that shit—but at least back then there was good music. I still like Nine Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy and all that shit. I can't stand what kids listen to these days. Maybe that just means I'm getting old, but even what they call hardcore sucks. I don't know, it's like everybody started taking ecstasy and music just went all to hell. The stuff they listen to now is only good if you're tripping balls at a rave somewhere. Me, I'd never even been to a rave until until Nadia started dating Michael.
But we were going to a rave that night. I remember it was sunset on a Friday. I'd already showered, so I was pretty much ready. I put on jeans and my favorite Nine Inch Nails t-shirt, the one with the letters NIN right in the middle. It was old and frayed, washed so many times it was more gray than black. I spiked my short black hair, checked my look in the mirror, and I was good to go.
We all lived on one floor of this empty factory building, which we could do because Saul owned the whole building. He slept in the office, and we each had rooms. My bedroom used to be a copy room, and David's was a big supply closet. Nadia and Michael's was a break room. It was a really awesome place to live, except there was only one bathroom, which was a total pain in the ass.
When I got to the living room, I found Saul leaning back in the recliner. He looked bad-ass, as always. He had his long chestnut hair brushed and tied back neatly with a black silk ribbon. He wore a black t-shirt and a biker's leather jacket, looking like he was born in it. He nodded at me. "Good evening, Paul."
"Hey, Saul," I said. "Sleep good?"
Saul shrugged. Before he could say anything else, Michael and Nadia walked in, hanging off each other, as usual. "Hey, guys," Michael said. He wore like a hockey jersey or something. He had bright blue eyes and curly blond hair that he kept short. He held a rave flier in his hand, and he read it while Nadia nibbled on his ear. "You ready to check out Crystal Palace? D.J. Kampf and MotoJon. Good lineup." Michael got into the new music scene, for some reason. He didn't even like Nirvana. I don't know what Nadia saw in him.
"This is an... underground... party, I presume?" Saul asked. He always managed to sound formal, and kind of bored.
Nadia answered for Michael. "Yeah, we just called. It's going to be at a farm somewhere out by Arcadia." She had on dark, dark red lipstick, and she always chewed gum. She was pretty, but I didn't really think about her like that anymore. She had a sort of mannish jaw, and her hair was dark red, straight and cut short like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction.
We liked illegal raves better. For one thing, there weren't any cops. Also, like Saul taught us, we had a better chance of finding the right kind of people.
David came out last, dressed in jeans and a tight black t-shirt that showed off his lean torso. A careless mop of black hair fell over his dark eyes. "Hey, guys. We all waiting on me?" Of all of us he looked the most innocent, the most childlike.
Michael answered, "Yeah. Let's go already. I'm hungry." None of us could argue with that, so we piled into the freight elevator that would take us down to the garage.
We got into the van and pulled onto the road. Saul drove. He lit a cigarette as he accelerated onto the interstate. Pretty soon we were out of Chicago and deep in the boonies. The stereo was blasting "1979" by The Smashing Pumpkins, which is damned good music, and I don't care what Michael says.
Nobody was talking. We all had the windows down, and the day had been one of those brutally hot ones when all you can do is count the hours until the sun goes down, and even after sunset it's hot enough to wear a t-shirt and it feels just great. It was that kind of night. We left early enough to catch the last glow of twilight, and out on the road it was beautiful. The summer air, the music, the cornfields and fireflies going by, all those smells of grass and summer barbecues, and all of us together, road tripping. You know what I mean, you've been there yourself. It was magic. I think we all felt it then, and deep down we all knew it couldn't last. Nature's first green is gold, and all that bullshit.
***
I enjoyed the drive so much, I was almost sorry to get to the party. But I could already feel the hunger nagging at me. The others must have felt the same. We were quiet and focused when we got there. Saul parked the van, and we all walked through the dust and the thick smell of alfalfa towards the barn where they were holding the party.
It really was in the middle of nowhere. Just some big barn, with a bumpy cow pasture for a parking lot. Bales of hay and orange plastic construction fencing had been put up to keep the crowd corralled. Party people milled all around us. It looked like the normal crowd. Sharp-dressed gangsters with their lowered Hondas and their beautiful, bored-looking dates, hippie girls with glowing necklaces and cartoon backpacks, and as always, a few mud-smeared drug freaks running around with teddy bears. It looked like a wild party. Hundreds of people danced all around us with glow sticks, and there was evidence that someone, somewhere, was making balloon animals. You could feel the base thudding under your feet. We paid our admission and went inside.
The place was packed and hot. It reeked of hundreds of sweating bodies, and the music was so loud it felt like your ears would start bleeding. We fanned out, each of us making our way alone through the crowd. It's easier to meet someone that way. Nadia and Michael pretended they were single. David, Saul and I, well, we didn't have to pretend.
***
It was a wild party. I don't think I met another sober person there the whole night. And I didn't see any alcohol, if you know what I mean. But that's good, for us. I kept to the wall, in the shadows, talking to people who seemed to be alone. I met a pretty little blond hippie girl who seemed like she might work out, but she was there with her brother and his friends, and she had a cell she was supposed to call her mom with. She seemed to like me, but then everyone likes us. I shrugged her off. She wasn't what I was looking for. Next I met a boy who also seemed interested, but he was pretty much the same story.
After a few more tries I found a little brunette named Tanya, I think. She was pretty and earnest, and also extremely high on mushrooms. After some gentle que
stioning I learned that she didn't have a place, and she slept around on friend's couches. She had heard about the rave from a couple of guys at a record store, and had hitchhiked there with a few other guys. She didn't seem to be in touch with her family at all. She was perfect. She was a lot of fun too. She kept saying crazy mushroom things about gnomes and carnivals. I invited her back to my place after the party. She said that would be great.
After another hour or so, I met back up with David and Saul. David had found a scrawny redheaded candy kid. He said, "Everyone, this is Squeaky." I smiled at her, and she responded with a perky wave. She had those stupid beaded bracelets all the way up her arms and necklaces around her neck. Saul was alone, but that didn't surprise me. These really aren't his kind of party. He would have had a better time at a bar somewhere or a pool hall, but he indulges us.
When Nadia found us, she had this angry looking dude with her. He couldn't seem to keep his hands off her. He was dressed like a douchebag, right down to the bandanna and the popped collar on his polo shirt. He was the kind of person we would have hated in high school. I spotted Michael, still empty-handed. But we had enough. Saul nodded imperceptibly, and I suggested that we all blow this party and head home to smoke some pot. Our new friends thought that was a great idea, and we all squeezed into the van.
***
Time always seems to go faster when you're at a party. By the time we got out of there it was well past midnight. Squeaky wouldn't shut up. She never stopped fidgeting and talking a mile a minute the whole time we were in the van, about love and peace and ecstasy and how great raves were. Most of the time ravers just piss me off. Tanya just wanted to make out with me, so I let her. What's-his-name continued to maul Nadia, while she good-naturedly put up with it. Michael sat in the front seat with a fake smile frozen on his face. David sat in the back and just looked out the window while squeaky talked.
I didn't know where Saul was taking us, but it wasn't back home. We were already out in the sticks. Out the back window the lights of the city grew dimmer and dimmer on the horizon, and none of our passengers seemed to notice. They usually didn't. There was nobody, and I mean nobody, on the road.
Saul pulled the van off of the main road to a bumpy dirt driveway. At that moment I recognized the place. It was an abandoned grain mill we had used before. Saul knows of a million spots like this one; quiet secluded places all across the state, and some over in Indiana too. We rotate between them.
"Almost home," said Saul. He killed the headlights. The country dark closed in.
"You guys live here?" Tanya disengaged herself from me and looked around. There weren't any lights at the site, so she couldn't see anything. I could see the granary building silhouetted against the night sky.
"Yeah. It's a lot nicer inside," I answered. "Come on. Let's go get stoned." I jumped out of the van and everyone followed me, Saul taking up the rear. They bumped along in the dark behind me as I led the group on, in between the abandoned warehouses and silos.
"Hey, guys, I can't see anything," said what's-his-name, the douchebag, while he put his hand down the back of Nadia's pants.
I don't like to play around the way Michael and Nadia do, so I went first, quietly. While Nadia was giggling and leading the douchebag on, I took Tanya by the hand and put my face close enough so she could see my index finger over my lips. She smiled. I gently led her off into the darkness. Over her shoulder I could see David doing the same with his girl, leading her off in a different direction. Saul followed discretely behind me.
The place was like a maze. We reach the far corner of an old silo, bathed in darkness and the musty smells of the place. Saul hung back twenty feet or so. She didn't see him. She was very trusting. I don't think she suspected anything, right up to the end. It's amazing she survived that long.
I decided it was far enough. I stopped, and she pressed up close against me. I could feel her hot breath, her body twisting against me. I kissed her gently, brushed her hair back. She put her arms around me, breathing hard in my ear. I whispered to her, "Don't be afraid."
She squirmed harder against me, and whispered back, "I'm not afraid of anything."
I kissed her again on the smooth lower curve of her jawbone. She really was very pretty.
Then I bit her neck.
Her skin gave way. Hot blood jetted into my mouth, as good as ever. She gasped and started to fight, but I held her fast with my hand over her mouth. She stopped struggling before long, as her strength left her. She slumped, panting in my arms. She had eyes like a dying fawn. Once it would have broken my heart.
Through the blood haze, I heard Saul approaching behind me. My stomach was full, so I passed her into his arms and he drank his fill. I wiped my lips with the corner of my t-shirt. Have you ever wondered why vampires wear black? I'll tell you why. It's so the blood doesn't show.
Over by the van, I heard the douchebag scream. That would be Michael and Nadia. Walking back the way I came, I saw their victim running towards me, his polo shirt covered in blood. In the pitch dark he passed within three feet and didn't see us. I didn't move. In another second I saw Michael jump down from the roof ahead of the guy. Mikey sank his teeth in, and it was all over.
***
It had been a good night. We all got fed, hid the bodies with no complications, and we got back to our place before sunrise. After we got back, Saul went up to his room to read, as usual. The rest of us smoked some grass and played video games for a while, but pretty soon Nadia made us stop because she wanted to watch TV. I thought the show she wanted to watch sucked, so I went to my room, but David stayed up with Nadia and Michael.
For the longest time, I still wanted a hamburger. Even though I'd tried it before, even though I knew I couldn't eat that stuff anymore, I still had this craving for a big double cheeseburger or something. Like a ghost limb. You know, like when someone gets an arm blown off or something and they can still feel pain in it even though it isn't there anymore? The weird thing is, when I was alive, I didn't even like hamburgers. I guess it just goes to show how everybody wants what they can't have.
Anyway, once or twice I did try a hamburger. It tasted like crap. I guess that was newbie stuff, because I haven't done that in a while.
Nothing hits the spot anymore but blood.
Speaking of blood, That girl's blood must have had some pretty good mushrooms in it because my furniture kept melting and I just lay there on my bed for the longest time, staring at the ceiling, tripping and thinking about the strangest things. I kept thinking about how nice Tanya was, and how pretty her smile was and everything, which when you think about it is kind of fucked up because I just killed her. I'd think there was something wrong with me, if I wasn't a vampire.
Even so, I feel bad about it sometimes.
When we were in high school, we all used to talk about how cool it would be if we were all vampires, and how we'd all kill all the jocks and all our teachers, and how we'd live forever. We still say that, but now we know the truth. Sometimes it gets you down. You go to sleep every morning, thinking to yourself, tomorrow, I'm going to get up and kill somebody. It just gets to be another thing, like brushing your teeth or cleaning up dog crap. That's the depressing part. It gets so mundane.
Tanya had really pretty eyes. I kind of liked her. If Saul would have let me, I might have turned her. But Saul doesn't want any more members in our club. He says five of us attracts enough attention, but I don't know what he's so worried about. The sad thing is, other than Nadia, I never could talk to girls before I was a vampire. I guess you could say I died a virgin. So did David, but he doesn't like to talk about it. Neither do I, really.
Chapter Two
I didn't really mean to, but I guess I started this story with the last normal night of our lives. I didn't plan it that way. That's just how it turned out. The fact is, I'm not really much of a writer. This isn't much of a story for that matter, so I guess you don't have to read it. Sometimes I just have to write things down and I don't really care if
anybody likes it or not.
Anyway, getting back to the first sentence in this chapter, I mean normal by our standards. Anything can get normal if you do it enough. Ask a junkie or a serial killer, or somebody who irrigates colons for a living or something.
I couldn't sleep because of the mushrooms. I left my room, and Nadia and Michael were asleep in front of the TV. I didn't see David. I wanted to go up to the roof, since there was still some dark left and that was always a good place to trip. The elevator made too much noise, so I took the stairwell.
The stairs ended in a little landing next to the door that opened onto the roof. The door was built into a little hut on the roof, with just enough room inside for a few people to stand. I opened the door and walked outside. When I got past all the ducts and boxes for the vents and air conditioners, I found Saul on the roof already. He had his hair down. He sat with his legs dangling over the edge, cigarette in hand, facing the city. It was quite a view. The downtown skyline glowed like a fire on the horizon. From our place you could just see the top of the Sears Tower. Some people paid a lot of money for a view like that.
"Paul." He said it like a greeting, but he didn't move.
"Hey, Saul." Saul had fed on the same girl as me. He must have been feeling the mushrooms too. I sat next to him on the wide ledge. "Nice night."
Saul had a cigarette tucked between his fingers. As if in slow motion, he raised it to his lips and drew it to life. He spoke through a plume of smoke. "I'm worried about David."
That caught me off guard. I searched Saul's face for clarification, but he didn't even move. He looked like a statue, except for the smoke drifting from his nostrils. "Why, what's wrong with David?"
"David is..." Saul paused again. He stared towards the glowing city. "Lonely. Just lonely."
"Well, everybody's lonely. What do you mean?" By the way Saul's silence hung in the air, I could tell he was sorry he had said anything about it.
