by P. J. Burgy
Lizzie unlocked the driver’s side and slid in, Teddy and Helena diving in behind her. At the last moment, Helena slammed the door shut, the foaming muzzle of a small dog snapping at her feet. The dogs yipped madly, running the perimeter of the truck as their master continued to stagger closer and closer.
“Spray him with the holy water!” Lizzie cried.
Teddy started the truck up, the engine failing to turn right away. He turned the key again and it roared to life. “Won’t work on that thing. That’s a ghoul!”
“A ghoul?” Lizzie asked.
“What you become if the vampire bites you but doesn’t turn you. If you don’t get drained all the way or drink the vamp’s blood,” Helena explained. She grabbed Teddy’s quiver and backpack, looking at the contents of the latter. “Silver arrow would do the trick, but we don’t wanna waste ‘em!”
Lizzie scowled. “So how do we handle Gary?”
Teddy looked over at her, eyes serious. He threw the truck into reverse, slammed on the gas, and clumsily backed up over Gary, squashing him to the ground and crushing his bones with a series of wet crunches.
Her face fell.
Helena checked the windows, the white painted circles and symbols still intact. “Okay, let’s go to the church!”
Teddy shifted to ‘D’ and slammed on the gas again.
They’d driven for less than two minutes when a heavy ‘THUMP’ percussed from the roof of the truck and a large indentation threatened to crush them from above. Teddy almost lost his grip on the wheel, skidding back and forth before he regained both his composure and control.
“LIZZIE!” Martin hollered, his voice rising above the roaring wind as the truck sped down the snowy road. “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?”
His clawed fingers appeared at the very top of the windshield, his talons scratching the glass.
“He’s on the roof!” Lizzie shrieked.
“That he is,” Helena said, nodding. “He can’t get in. The seals prevent him from opening the doors.”
Martin’s claws dragged away from the windshield and then appeared again, erupting through the metal roof of the truck and into the cabin with a sickening rip. He got a grip and began to pull back, attempting to peel the top off the Chevy.
Lizzie backed into the passenger side chair, leaning away from the ceiling and grimacing. “He’s not trying to open a door!”
“That’s bad!” Teddy purposely swung the steering wheel to and fro, sending the truck wavering in a wild, serpentine path along the snowy road.
Martin flopped to the left and to the right, holding on tightly by his talons, his peeling paused as he fought to stay on the roof of the truck. He made loud, unhappy noises, his guttural growling reaching the occupants of the cabin. “LIZZIE.”
“We can make it!” Teddy said. “We just need to get to the grounds. He can’t follow us there!”
“Then we can run into the church!” Helena added excitedly.
Martin’s claws pulled out of the roof, and he jumped back, landing in the truck bed with another loud ‘THUMP’. He slammed into the sliding rear window, cracking it with the force. The white paint of the symbol emblazoned there flared bright red and he hissed.
His voice resonated through the glass. “LIZZIE.”
They drove through several stop signs as they grew closer to town, Teddy’s knuckles white as he gripped the wheel. He could clearly see Martin in the rear view, and he cursed.
“He does have a reflection!”
“In modern mirrors, he would,” Lizzie stated. “Ah, the old ones, um, had silver backing.”
“It makes sense. Damn, we were fools!” Helena exclaimed.
Teddy scowled. “Persistent, isn’t he?”
Lizzie nodded, swallowing. “He is.”
“LIZZIE.”
Helena strained to turn, peering at Martin’s enraged face on the other side of the glass. She eyed the back seat itself – empty save for some tools, several beaten up ballcaps, and a couple crushed beer cans. “Glad I didn’t hop in the back… The runes work, but blech, I wouldn’t want that thing so close to me.”
“LIZZIE!!!”
“Seriously, he’d be right in your ear,” Teddy grumbled. “He’s loud enough already…”
The truck raced along Main street in town proper, the road empty and the shops all dark. They only had the headlights to guide their way.
“What if we get pulled over?” Lizzie asked.
Teddy sent her a look. “You see any cops out in this?”
“I don’t see anybody out in this…” Helena said, her voice low. She stared out from the foggy glass, eyes narrowed.
Martin growled, slamming into the rear glass window again before dropping back. Then, he disappeared.
“Where’d he go?” Teddy asked, noting the vampire’s absence in the rearview mirror.
The truck lurched to the right, the wheel pulling so hard that Teddy gasped and lost his grip on it. One of the tires had gone, the alignment thrown askew in an instant. Despite his frantic efforts to reign in the wheel, the truck spun tightly, the rear end flailing outward to throw the occupants around like ragdolls inside the cab. Lizzie’s skull hit the window. Helena bounced and slammed her head into the roof. Teddy banged his face into the wheel.
The next twenty seconds were a blur, the world spinning around them as the Chevy whirled in the snow and caught a pile at the curb, ramping up and over right into a pole, splitting the front of the truck open. Smoke belched from the cleaved engine, the screaming gears and sputtering pistons echoing against the dark windows of the shops on either side of the crash. Fluid leaked from the truck, staining the snow.
“Ow.” Lizzie moaned.
Helena rolled her head to the side, eyes blurry, and reached out to her brother to shake him. “Teddy.”
He groaned.
“Everyone alive?” Helena asked.
Lizzie moaned again.
“We have to get into a building,” the girl said. “He’ll come back any second. Rip that roof off. Gotta get inside and lay down salt. Figure out our next move.”
Teddy grabbed for his backpack and quiver. “I’m gonna so enjoy staking this motherfucker.” His nose bled profusely, and his bottom lip had been busted open.
They piled out of the truck, forming their triangle position again. Lizzie shined the flashlight around and pointed it at the building to the left. It was Bill Hanson’s hardware store.
“Go, go!” Helena ushered the other two to hurry and they fell back against the brick side of the store, moving as a unit toward the metal frames of the double doors.
Of course, the lights were off inside. Lizzie banged on the door weakly. “Bill might be here. The store is open until ten most nights.” She tried the door and it pushed in, unlocked. “It’s open!”
“Get in!” Teddy hissed.
They backed into the darkness, Lizzie shining the flashlight ahead of them as the siblings closed and locked the doors. Immediately, Teddy bent and grabbed for a linen sack. He poured down a long, thick line of white salt across the threshold.
“And that’ll keep Martin out?” Lizzie asked.
“It’ll keep him out, yeah. But it won’t do shit against a ghoul. If he makes more, we’re fucked,” Teddy replied.
“Bar the doors.” Helena grabbed for the nearest thing she could find – ice scrapers – and ran back to the double doors with them. She began to fit the scrapers through the handles, preventing them from being opened inward. “Lizzie, let’s find some lumber, okay? Gotta fortify the glass part.”
Lizzie nodded. A dark shape appeared on the other side of the glass and Martin stood there, head tilted as he studied her. His grin grew wide the moment she noticed him, and she scurried back, averting her eyes.
“Am I going to have to throw more automobiles around tonight? You’re giving me a real workout, Lizzie,” he said.
“Why are you doing this to me?” She kept her back to him, gripping the flashlight in her trembling hand.
&
nbsp; He clicked his tongue, palms pressed against the glass portion of the steel framed door. A faint red light emanated from the salt along the floor. “Why? Because I love you. And you’re mine.”
Helena and Teddy had found new flashlights and pointed them around the store close by as they searched the shelves. The girl bounded over to Lizzie.
“Don’t engage. Come on. We’ll block the glass,” she said.
Lizzie frowned. “Don’t you get it? He’ll never stop. He’s just going to do it again. He’ll throw something through the storefront. He’s not going to stop.”
“She’s right, you know.” Martin nodded. His black eyes scanned over Helena as the girl glared at him. He bared his fangs, amused. “I’m quite tenacious. It’s one of my many endearing qualities.”
“You could have anyone,” Lizzie said, head low.
He pointed at her. “I want you.”
“So, you’ll keep hurting people until you get me? Is that what you’ll do?” She clenched her fist, jaw clenched.
“Bingo.”
Helena touched her arm. “Lizzie, come on…”
Lizzie shined the flashlight across the shelves nearby and then across the floor. The register was ten feet to her right and she spotted something on it. Rushing over, Lizzie grabbed for a package and opened it, freeing the multi-purpose pocketknife. She walked back over to the door, her eyes on the floor. Pushing the blade out, she pressed it to the side of her own throat, head tilted back. “Well, how about this then? What if I did this?”
Martin’s grin evaporated. “You wouldn’t.”
“You don’t think so?” Lizzie swallowed, closing her eyes, pushing the blade until she felt the sting and warm blood ran down her neck.
“STOP!” Martin hollered, the glass windows vibrating.
“Lizzie, stop,” Helena whispered, pulling on her arm. “Put it down. Please. Put it down.”
Shaking, her fingers went lax, and she dropped the knife to the floor. Lizzie began to cry, doubling over and letting Helena support her weight.
“You can’t,” Martin said from the other side of the glass. “You can’t and you won’t. Come out and be with me, Lizzie. Please. I’ll make it all better. I’ll help you.”
“Fuck off!” Lizzie sobbed.
“Unkind.” His top lip curled, and he stepped back. “We’ll play this another way, my love. You won’t be able to hold yourself hostage again. I’ll be back shortly.”
He disappeared from the sidewalk.
“Should we move now?” Teddy asked.
“Could be a trap,” his sister said. “Better to gather supplies while we’re here. Look what I found.” She held out her flashlight, a thick, black affair with multiple buttons. Pressing the purple one changed the beam of light to a low, resonating violet shade.
Teddy gawked. “That’s UV.”
“I was about to shine it at him before he boogied out to see if it worked. We’ll just have to wait ‘til he comes back.” Helena switched it off.
“If Bill’s still here somewhere, maybe he’ll let us borrow his truck,” Lizzie suggested. “The store was open, I mean.”
“Wouldn’t he have heard us and come to check out the commotion?” Teddy asked.
A shuffling from the back of the darkened store got their attention. Lizzie froze up at the gurgling that came next. Then, someone coughed, and Bill Hanson poked his head around the corner of one of the aisles. “Lizzie Clay, is that you?”
“Bill!” Lizzie exclaimed. “Oh, thank God.”
“What were you doing hiding back there?” Helena shouted, stomping her foot. “My brother might’a accidentally speared you with an arrow, old man!”
“Hidin’? I was sleepin’. I live in the apartment above the store. Got a buzzer that tells me when people come in, but the power gone and went out, so I didn’t know y’all were waltzin’ around in the dark all this time. What in the hell are you doin’?” He swung around the corner, hands on his hips.
“Uh, there’s a bit of trouble outside tonight, sir,” Teddy replied, smiling awkwardly.
Bill Hanson was a tall, older gentleman with short, salt and pepper hair and sharp gray eyes. He glared heavy at them, nose crinkled. “Bit o’ trouble? What are you talkin’ about, boy?”
“Bill, this is going to sound bonkers, but, ah,” Lizzie said, blinking as she hunted for the right words to say. “There’s a crazy man out there. He chased us and we had to barricade the doors.”
“Crazy man? What?” Bill squared his shoulders.
“Do you have a vehicle on premise, sir?” Teddy asked. “And if you do, can we please have the keys?”
“You want my truck? Why didn’t you call the cops?”
“Phones don’t work, sir.”
“Cell tower is out,” Helena said.
Lizzie nodded. “We need to get out of here before he comes back. He’s violent and dangerous. You should probably go back up to your apartment and lock the door.”
“Hell, I will,” Bill said, shaking his head. He stomped across the store, went to the register, and pulled a shotgun out from under it. He grabbed a handful of shells from a box while he was at it. “Anyone threatens a soul in Puhtipstie an’ they got Bill Hanson to answer to. Let ‘im come back ‘an I’ll show him what for. Who is he?”
“Well, Mr. Hanson, as it turns out, he’s a vampire!” Helena replied, expression deadly serious. “And that shotgun isn’t going to do much to the undead.”
“A vampire?”
Lizzie rubbed her forehead. “I know it sounds crazy.”
“Eh, whatever. Vampire Werewolf. Swamp monster. Whatever the hell your crazy feller is, I bet he don’t like fire much, eh? I say we make a flamethrower.”
Lizzie eyed him warily. “Make a flamethrower?”
“I got a backup supply of juice. I say we weld together some piping an’ a fuel tank an’ an air blow gun. Got a gas can in the back too. How ‘bout that?” He rocked his hips, smiling.
“You are the coolest old man ever,” Helena declared.
Bill nodded sagely. “Ya’ll can’t borrow the truck, but I can getcha where you wanna go once we got that flamethrower put together.”
“You believe us?” Lizzie asked.
“I don’t much believe in monsters, Miss Lizzie, but I do believe that you’re afraid. And if you say it’s a monster, then I trust you.” He rolled his shoulders. “At the end of the day, a man can still be a monster without any fangs or claws.”
“Oh. Well, thank you,” she said.
He nodded. “That an’ I’ve just always wanted an excuse to make a flamethrower. Saw a tutorial on the interwebs a few months back, y’see. Looked cool.”
“Someone’s gotta keep an eye on the doors,” Helena stated, glancing at Bill Hanson as he walked back toward the rear of the shop. “Lizzie, can you do that? Can you keep an eye out and holler if anything happens?”
She nodded. “I’ll stand guard.”
Helena and Teddy jogged off to join Bill.
Chapter 15
Lizzie heard them back there, the welding tool hissing and metal smoldering as Bill Hanson talked with the Millers. They were exchanging factoids about weapons manufacturing and rigging up homemade catapults. An hour or so had gone by. Maybe longer. She lost track of the time, lost track of herself.
Martin hadn’t been back, and that fact bothered her more than she cared to admit to herself.
She sat on an overturned bucket, partway turned toward the door. It was better to keep the glass windows in her periphery to avoid being caught in his eyes like she’d been before.
A figure appeared at the door, blonde and dressed in a red blouse and skirt combo. Margo tapped at the glass.
Lizzie stood straight up, staring at her.
“Lizzie!” Margo called. “Lizzie, let me in! Please!”
“Margo?”
“Lizzie, you were right. He’s a lunatic. Chased me right out of my house. Let me in.” Her brows furrowed deeply, and she lingered at the door, bounc
ing from foot to foot.
Cautiously, Lizzie approached, her throat tight. She made it to the door and stopped a few feet from the glass, head turned as she studied Margo’s pale face. “No.”
“What? Lizzie, let me in.”
“Martin, you sick son of a bitch…” Lizzie’s face twisted as she stared at her friend outside.
“Lizzie?”
“How did you know I was here, Margo?” she asked.
“Let me in, please.”
“Are you cold?”
“Yes.”
“You have no breath, Margo. You aren’t breathing.”
“Lizzieeeee…” Margo moved to touch the glass and the salt glowed a faint red.
Lizzie backed away, eyes burning as they filled with tears. “I told you not to let him in! Why did you let him in?!”
Margo grinned, her fangs protruding from bloodless gums. Her irises were as black as her pupils. “I let him in so he could fuck me, Lizzieeeee, because he wanted to have this body. Because you’re cold fish, Lizzieeeeee, and nobody ever wanted you because everybody always wanted meeeeee.”
“Stop it.” She shook her head.
“You let boys like Tommy fuck you. Not men like Martin. He fucked me good. I bled to death he was so good. Have you seen his fangs, girrrrrl?! Didn’t even need to take off his pants to fuck me, girrrrrl!!” Margo swooned and slammed her forehead against the glass door, cracking it as the salt below glowed bright red. Her flesh began to burn. She shrieked, stepping back.
“You’re not Margo…”
Margo laughed, tongue hanging out as she fanned the smoke away from her smoldering face. “Ooh, girl, I got the vapors!”
“You aren’t Margo!”
Her black eyes rolled in their sockets, and she bent backward, her ribs cracking from the strain. “I’m not Margo because I’m dead, Lizzieeeee! I’m DEAD, LIZZIEEEEEEE. DEAD. DEAD. DEAD.”
Lizzie backed away further, shaking her head and staring at her friend’s animated corpse through the tears in her eyes.
“What’s goin’ on over there?” Bill shouted.
