Creatures of the Night
She stormed down the hallway and slammed the door as she entered her bedroom. The light was on for this was where the confrontation began. The blue thick carpet and darker blue bedspread matched her mood. Even the rain beating against the curtained bay windows seemed to murmur of bleak futures and dismal scenes. How could he do this? She considered breaking something, preferably something of his, but thought better of it.
``How dare he leave me?'' she yelled. ``Uhhrrrrghh!''
She fought for him to stay and lost. ``Tell me why you're so scared of being alone?'' Robert had asked, but she could not answer, so he left in sorrow. He had to stop by work again for some new emergency that demanded his personal attention. She knew he felt excluded but she did not quite understand what was happening, so how could she tell him anything except for the vaguest emotions. All she had was her dreams, which faded away leaving her with nothing but fleeting images. They had gone on for weeks, yet she could only bring these images into her mind.
She sat on her bed, not knowing what to do. She glanced over at her nightstand and pulled open the drawer. She pulled out a sheet of paper that she wrote the night before when she was alone in the house. She did not know if it would happen then. It did not, it would happen tonight. She knew that somehow. The rain was his doing. She read the note once again:
My Dear Robert,
You must know that I love you more than anything in the world, but somehow--I don't know how, I will be gone when you come home. I've tried to tell you--it's not my doing. I can't control this. I only know it's going to happen. Please believe me, I love you.
The dreams that I've been having, what I can remember of them, say it's going to happen soon. I can see this man, this awful man, who'll take me away, and I'll have no choice. I'm sorry Robbie. I don't think I'll be back. Don't come looking for me. You can't stop this. He'll kill you without any thought. I am so sorry. He's greater than I.
With all my love,
Kelly.
She left the note on the top of the nightstand where he would find it once again. The rain began to beat against the window fiercely. A branch scraped it, and she nearly hit the ceiling. It continued to bang on the glass, jarring her nerves even worse than they were.
``Stop it!'' she screamed.
Just then the power went out. A moment later, the lights flickered back on, and he was there before her. A too white face looked at her with dark eyes through the window. This might not have bothered her as much as it did, except that she was on the second floor. The windows opened, and he walked inside as casually as if he were walking in the front door. No rain followed him in although it was pouring fiercely outside. His clothes were fully dry.
He held out his hand and said, ``It is time to go.''
``Why?'' she asked.
``I have told you a hundred times in your dreams,'' he replied.
She stood and walked over to him as if she had no will, but it was not for this reason that she went to him. He attracted her. The power and the things he had promised in dreams, as if some part of her could remember them. The memories were still powerful enough to sway her actions. She took his hand, and they left through the open window into thinnest air.
II
Rob's car burst from the garage and quickly turned onto the road. He began to speed. He found the note his wife had left him and the empty house. Adding this to the argument concerning the dead in her dreams that they had had earlier, and he knew where she would be, St. Anthony's, the graveyard by the church down the highway.
He picked up his cell phone and called his best friend, Howard Baker, to see if he would accompany him in case of trouble. He glanced at the digital clock on the dashboard and saw the illuminated number read 1:46.
The phone rang a few times till Howard picked up the phone and said in a tired voice, ``Hello?''
``Hi, Howie, this is Rob,'' he said. ``Sorry for waking you. I'm on the way over to your house. I need your help.''
``What's up?''
``It's Kelly. I can't explain now. Please, will you go with me?''
``Sure, let me get dressed.''
``Okay, I'll be over at your place shortly. And thanks.''
``No problem.''
They hung up their phones and Rob finished driving over to Howard's house. He pulled into his friend's driveway. The light turned on by the motion sensor, and Howard waddled out the door. He wore a thick, yellow raincoat and carried an umbrella in hand. His wife stood in the doorway with a scowl on her face, directed at Rob. Howard opened the car door and got in without saying a word. Rob could not help himself so he smiled and waved to Gloria, Howard's wife. She went back inside and slammed the door in response. Rob was too angry to say anything, and Howard did not know what to say. They rode in silence. They went down he winding suburban roads at speeds that were barely safe. Dark forests lined both sides of the road. The storm subsided a little, but still went strong enough to make it difficult to drive. They reached their destination, and pulled into the driveway of the cemetery where Rob's only son and parents were buried. Howard finally gathered courage to speak up. ``A graveyard?! Your wife is at a graveyard?''
``Yeah, Howie, she's at a graveyard. Gotta problem with that?'' Rob replied.
``Kinda weird. Did you bring an umbrella?''
``Great. On top of everything, I'm gonna get soaked!''
``Should have brought your slickers like me.''
``Yeah, sure. Well go on up and open the gate, Mr. Slickers.''
Howard sighed and opened the car door. He got out awkwardly and ran up to the gate, splashing water on his unprotected pant legs. The gate to the cemetery consisted of twin, iron fences that met in the middle of the road. A lock that normally barred entrance hung limply on its chain. Howard opened the gate only to have it swing back when he let go. He pulled it open again and secured it this time behind a large rock. He climbed back in the car, letting the rain into the dry interior for a moment. The car entered the cemetery slowly as Rob began to scan the plotted fields on either side for signs of his wife. It stopped raining momentarily.
Seeing this, Howard asked, ``You know where she is in here?''
``No, I don't, so start looking for her.''
They continued on along the winding road, peering out over the stone slabs and the steadily decreasing rain. Howard saw something moving out on his side of the car and said softly, ``Stop the car.''
As the car slowed to a stop, Howard rolled down the window to get a better view and pointed. ``See there, that moving spot,'' he said
Rob followed Howard's finger and saw a blurry patch of white with vaguely human dimensions moving swiftly about.
``Let's go,'' he said as he parked the car.
Rob stepped out of the car first, and Howard followed after rolling up the window. He trudged on over the wet grass through grim aisles of the dead, and Howard followed toward where they had seen the figure. They walked on, soaking their shoes and pants till Rob stopped suddenly.
``I know where this is,'' he exclaimed. ``My family plot is just ahead. We usually come the other way.''
He marched quickly up the narrow space between the headstones of either aisle. He felt something was wrong about treading on stranger's graves. Howard, however, showed no such respect and plodded on over the graves without concern. Rob again stopped, this time as if hitting an invisible wall. Howard went to his side and saw the upturned grave Rob saw. He did not realize the significance of it till he glanced at the headstone behind the grave to see his friend's last name engraved on the stone. It was Rob's mother. The two graves on the other side had also been upturned violently as if some plowed ripped open the earth wide. They too belonged to Rob's family.
They stood there looking at the three feet deep depressions in the ground. The light of the full moon came out as the rain clouds parted. She appeared just as the rain began to come down again. Neither of the two noticed her until she was but a few feet away, and then both looked up to see the elegant lady standing so very close to them. She wore a white lace gown that was soiled along its lower fringes where she had moved through the grass and mud. Howard was merely puzzled by her appearance, here in the night at such a place. However, the sight shocked Rob into mute silence. Howard looked at Rob's reaction and at first thought it was the desecration of his family's graves.
``Who have you brought to see me, Robbie?'' the lady asked, but Rob did not answer. ``Have you no kisses for your mother?'' she replied with a wicked smile coming to her lips.
Howard began to suspect some evil joke being played on his friend. The woman looked vaguely like what he could remember of Rob's mother. Everything started to fit into place: Kelly going to the cemetery, the upturned graves, and this imposter made perfect sense now. Yet, he could not believe that Kelly would be involved in all this.
``Listen miss,'' Howard said harshly stepping in front of his friend. ``I don't believe this is a bit funny, so why don't you leave now before the police are implicate...'' Howard stopped talking when he looked into her eyes. They showed no pupil or iris, only a blank whiteness.
She ignored Howard totally and said, ``Robbie, have you brought a friends for kisses?''
So saying, she lunged forward with a strength and agility far beyond her apparent age. She missed Howard, who stepped quickly out of her way, and landed on Rob, knocking him to the ground. She tore open Rob's shirt easily at the shoulder and bit deeply. Rob screamed in pain. Howard saw a shovel a few steps away and grabbed it. He threatened the woman, waving it close to her head, but again she paid no mind, licking at the wound she had created on Rob's now bare shoulder. The fall and attack had stunned him, and Howard yelled at the woman to stop.
In response, she looked up and said, ``Kisses?'' with blood streaming down her chin and coating her mouth like an obscene application of lipstick.
Without thinking in fear and revulsion, Howard hit her in the face with the shovel before she could again shove her face greedily back into the bleeding wound. She fell off Rob, and he started to move. She stood to her feet instantly. Rob took several seconds more. Bruises covered her swollen face, and her lips parted to reveal teeth longer and sharper than any human's could be. The force of the shovel had cracked some of them, and they protruded from her bloodstained, puffy lips. She gnashed them together in anger and anticipation even though. Red blood flowed from between them soon to be followed by more as she vomited up what she had just swallowed. Blood flowed down her chin. Her lips, far too voluptuous for one her advanced age, bore a deep red hue in stark contrast to her blank eyes. They parted as she once again asked, ``Kisses?''
Before Howard knew what he was doing, Rob grabbed the shovel from his hand and hit his ``mother'' in the face again. She fell to the ground again, and he raised the shovel again. He brought it down edge first against her face. It cut deeply and split her nose in two. Rob raised the shovel again and brought it down again, followed by a third and forth. The fifth fell against her neck and her head rolled off into the grave from where it came. Rob stopped and started to push the body into the hole as well. Howard tried to help and grabbed the ankles of the body, but he dropped them as soon as he touched them. The body was cold, as it had been for many years.
Once they had the body back into its grave, Rob replaced the muddy earth with the shovel. They walked back to the car. It rained again. Howard stopped him suddenly, pointed back to the graves, and said, ``What about the other two?''
III
They walked the streets side by side, and at each of the streetlights, she considered turning to see his face hidden by the darkness, but her courage deserted her each time. She kept her gaze fixed upon the ground before her. They stepped through the pyramids of light created by the lamps high above, and her gaze almost against her will turned toward her suitor and captor who walked beside her. However, she managed always to avoid the sight of him. The storm had long since ended, leaving puddles in the street and small rivers in the gutters. The electronic clock mounted on the side of the bank revealed it was three in the morning.
``Don't you have to return before the sun rises?'' she asked of him quietly.
``No,'' he replied, speaking the first word since they left her house in a very fluid accent unlike anything she had ever heard before. ``The sun only weakens us.''
She did not know what to say. What does one say to a vampire? She continued to walk beside him sharing in the thrill of the night that was his. He turned down an alley, and she followed him. He held out his hand, and she placed her hand in his. He turned bringing her hand over his shoulder, and she snuggled close to his back. She felt him grow warm and the flesh beneath his cloak suddenly turned from hard to soft and plastic. In a mere second, his form wavered and changed into that of a huge bird far larger than anything in existence for thousands of years. He had become a small roc with plumage darker than any raven's. He took flight just as quickly with her clinging to his back. Together, they flew across the sky, over and out of the city. She felt the air blow past her, and she clung to his now-frail body. She felt heavier than he and clung to him fiercely for fear of falling and for other reasons.
His body softened with the addition of feathers, and she buried her chin and fingers into the silky tuft at the base of his neck. His great wings flapped for awhile before stopping to drift. It had been her fantasy to fly of her own power and this was the closest she had ever come. She was in total ecstasy.
The flight seemed to last forever, and she snuggled close to him till they landed on the expansive grounds of a mansion. Before her eyes, he turned back to human form, and instead of leading her to the mansion, he led her through the woods that bordered it. They stopped in front of a small marble building. Its windows and doors had been boarded up, and it reminded her of a mausoleum she had once seen. He ducked under the boards that merely gave the appearance of baring the way and opened the door. She saw a marble table beyond the door and a light coming from somewhere beyond the table. Here she hesitated realizing this was her last chance to escape the fate that steadily befell her and perhaps return to the life leaving her. Here death lay before her, and the possibility of something beyond that impenetrable barrier. She did not know which scared her more. This dark lord before her seemed to know her mind because he did nothing but wait patiently at the door for her to decide. She did so, walking through the doors to his side.
They walked deeper inside, and she noticed that what she mistook for a table was in fact a tomb. This was in fact a mausoleum. He walked by it and began to descend a stairwell hidden behind the tomb that led into the ground. The light came from the bottom of the stairs, and she stopped again.
``You have nothing to fear, child, as long as I am present,'' he said to her in the melodious speech that had haunted her dreams.
She descended the steps after him and said awkwardly, ``My name is Kelly.''
``I know,'' he answered. ``I've been in your mind for quite awhile. My name is Jonathan.''
She stepped off the stairs, stopping within a few inches of him into the darkened room, but he did not become uncomfortable as any human would. He stood there looking down at her with his large, violet eyes. She saw his handsome face clearly for the first time in the waking world. He was handsome in the classical sense with a strong face, thin, dark lips and wavy, black hair. His cheeks were thin and almost sunken, and his nose was thin with a slightly upturned end, just enough to be considered cute. She was the one to be made uncomfortable.
``Why have you taken me here?'' she demanded without the conviction it required.
``I think you should know that by now, my love.''
``But why me?''
Jonathan paused and then said, ``Your dreams, above all, attracted me to you. Your mind singled you out. Your body did not count as all flesh is malleable. But I was fortuitous with you. You are truly beautiful. That is why I picked you to be my mate.''
``There are other ways, you know,'' she said to counter how much she felt like a child in his presence. Her face felt hot, and she was sure a blush had crept to her face.
``I find this modern idea of dating absurd, especially for the purpose of finding a mate.''
``I don't find it the least bit absurd - if you don't love someone you shouldn't be married.''
``What happens, my dear, if they fall out of love, or if they misinterpret lust for love as your kind so often do?'' he asked without the malice he could have.
She bit her lip and thought of Robert. ``I prefer,'' he said, ``the system of marriage which has worked well for millennia till this love issue came into play. It is more than this thing called roles which your scientists, idiots-at-large, have come up with. More than roles, marital duties produce love if followed for at their root is that basic proposition that you become one person. That you trust them and are committed to the relationship, not to the feelings for that person. Unfortunately now, most people do not seem to have that trust and commitment and miss something truly wonderful.''
Kelly remained silent as the dim lights suddenly flared to brilliance with a wave of his hand. The place revealed was not the dark hole she expected, but looked like an extremely small museum. White marble lined floor, wall and ceiling alike, with mock pillars set in the walls at regular intervals. Oil paintings rested in-between each with an illuminating lamp set above each one. A sparse amount of furniture sat in the room, and it all consisted of Victorian style. A couch, two chairs, a desk, and a table with a tasseled cloth over it were all that could be called furniture in the room. A black, painted vase with Chinese figures on it sat on the table.
He spoke, snapping her out of her wonderment of her surroundings, saying, ``I offer you everything that you can possibly want. Power, fame, beauty far surpassing your desires, love if you want that, desire, wealth, art, and even eternal life is mine to give if I choose. I offer all this to you for the simple payment of your company.''
``Can you not take it?'' she asked, half rhetorically and half wanting to know.
``Yes...I can.''
``Then why not force me to?''
``Some things...are better freely given,'' he replied.
``I won't give it,'' she said weakly hoping to find some escape from the deluge that had come upon her.
``No, I don't suppose you will, now at least. In fifty years, perhaps. If not then, I will let you go. Until then you have free access to my dwelling. I must rest now. It has been an exhausting night.''
With that he left through a door cleverly hidden between two columns, leaving her alone in the room. She soon tired as well, lacking sleep for more than a day. She lay down on the couch and quickly drifted off to sleep hoping Robbie would be alright without her. For the first time in months, she slept with no dreams to trouble her sleep. She slept soundly.
IV
Robert and Howard sat in the front seat of the BMW. It stood motionless in Rob's driveway. The last drops of rain sounded against its hood and evaporated from the heat of the engine. The morning light lit the enrivons dimly. Shadows blended into the darkness.
``I need a beer,'' Rob said, breaking the silence that had lasted since leaving St. Anthony's cemetery.
``I need more than that,'' Howard replied. ``What are we gonna do?''
``What can we do? She's gone. If only I had believed her, she tried to tell me, but I wouldn't listen. I was too stupid, too dense! And now she's gone, taken by God knows what. What to do - go in and get drunk, so drunk that I can't remember any of this and stay that way for as long as I can.''
``First you had better put a bandage on that bite.''
``Don't you remember what just happened! How can you be so calm?! That thing attacked me back there - those things aren't supposed to exist! They're supposed to stay on the movie screen, on the television. There is no monster under the bed! Or in the closet! Right!? That's what we were always told! So how could this happen?!''
``Robert!'' Howard shouted sternly, ``Get ahold of yourself and quickly. This may not be over and you've implicated me. I'll need you as much as you needed me earlier, I'm sure.''
Robert turned to face him and said, ``What do you mean?''
``The light in your bedroom just went on. I'm pretty sure that isn't Kelly. We had better check it out.''
Robert laughed and asked, ``Why?''
``What do you mean why?''
``Give them her. Give them the house. I don't care.''
``No. No, Rob, you're not going to let them, because this involves me too. Your decision makes mine. My house is mine. My life is mine. I'll not give it up to anyone or anything. I worked too hard for it all. Do you have your rifles loaded?''
``Yes,'' Rob said blankly.
``Are they in their cabinet?''
``Yes.''
``Then let's get going,'' Howard said, opening the door.
``But how can a gun hurt them?''
``Dammit, Rob, a shovel killed one. I don't care if it's Dracula himself up there. Once he's cut in half by a shotgun, I doubt if he'll be able to do much else. Now come on!''
Howard got out of the car and Robert followed. He pulled the keys out of the ignition, and they walked up the paths of bricks laid into the ground. Rob separated the house keys from the others on the ring. The little plastic panda bear that hung from it bounced up and down as he did so. Even before they reached the door, they heard the booming sound of Jefferson Starship's ``We Built this City'' coming from inside the house. Robert slid the key into the lock after a few nervous misses and then undid the heavy lock above it. His hand shook as he grasped the doorknob and opened it. A wave of sound hit them as the full volume of the song escaped through the open door.
They entered the darkened foyer and both gazed fearfully at the steps going up to the second floor on their right. The large window, above the back door at the other end of the foyer, allowed in only enough light to let them to see their way. They moved quickly past the stairs and down five steps to the floor level of the living room. They looked cautiously around like two boys playing tag. Rob looked around for any sign of intruders. A fireplace was set into the far wall of the room. Heavily curtained sliding glass doors lay to their left, with ripped plastic covering a couch in front of it. A ten year old television sat on their right that one had to pound on to get it to work. Pictures of Rob and Kelly sat on stained wooden shelves above the television. On the other side of the couch, a table with an antique brass lamp and the gun cabinet sat across from a hallway that led to a bathroom and the basement. They walked over to it carefully, watching for any sudden movement.
When they reached it, Rob turned on the lamp and the light shone green through tits colored glass shade. It caused an eerie pallor on their faces and hands. Rob found the key to the cabinet on his key chain and unlocked their doors. He opened them and took out the shot gun and two rifles he owned. He handed the shot gun to Howard.
Do you remember how to use it, Robert mouthed silently. Howard shook his head up and down. Rob checked the two rifles to make sure they were loaded and then took out boxes of shells from beneath a load of papers and clothes that lay at the bottom of the cabinet. He handed one box to Howard. Rob dumped the shells out into his hand and stuffed them in his pant's pockets, and Howard followed his example. Howard nodded that he was ready, and Rob returned it. They crossed the room again and walked up the stairs into the foyer with their guns pointed ahead of them. Then the music stopped, leaving a dead silence in its wake. They froze until Huey Lewis and the News began to play ``Heart of Rock N' Roll'' loudly.
Relaxing, they moved upstairs again with Howard leading the way. The upstairs living room, bare of furniture, hid nothing, and they could see ahead in the kitchen through its double doors. They walked toward it and saw the light at the end of the hall on the right. It came from beneath the bedroom door, and that was where the music also came from. They walked down the hall, opening the doors to the bathroom and the study for occupants on the way. They saw no one. Their pulses raced in time with the music, throbbing through the walls and the bedroom door. They walked up cautiously and opened the door.
Beyond the bedroom door in the brighter light, they saw the king-sized bed and a woman lying on it. Her head propped up on an arm to look at them. She smiled. They did not. She waved her hand and the CD player turned off inside its glass case. They raised their guns at her in fear.
``Oh come now,'' she said, ``I'm here to help you. You do wish her back don't you? I know where she is, who is holding her, and why. And it suits my purposes right now to help you. What do you say?''
``How can we trust you?'' Rob said.
She swung around and put her feet on the floor. She stood up off the bed and walked toward them.
``I'll fire,'' Rob said and raised the rifle butt to his shoulder. She advanced, and he fired at her head. She reached up faster than they could see and caught the bullet.
She looked at it and said, ``Not a very high caliber.'' Then she smiled again. As she did so, the shotgun fell apart in Howard's hands. She laughed and said, ``If I wanted to harm either of you, there would be nothing either of you could do to stop it. You don't know enough. But you are integral to my plans, and you will help me get your wife back. Agreed?''
Rob looked helplessly at Howard and said, ``Agreed.''
V
``The time is not yet right,'' she shouted and sipped at the huge, bowl-like glass before her. Music shot through the darkly lit bar, too loud to be discernible except for the overwhelming beat. The table and chairs vibrated under them, and the mixed aroma of sweat, alcohol and cigarette smoke filled every spot with intensity. People danced joyously without care on the small dance floor in the center of the bar. The lady enjoyed it all.
Howard and Rob could barely hear her. ``What do you mean,'' Rob shouted. They sat together at a corner table. Howard nursed a mug of beer. Rob held nothing but his anger. She could hear them fine.
``Wait till dawn,'' she replied. ``No sooner.''
She sat with a smile on her face, enjoying the music and the seedy atmosphere. Howard looked at her. Her hair looked raven black, and her eyes bore a tint of violet. She was slim and beautiful, high cheek bones, a small nose, slightly upturned, thick eyebrows, rich lips. She wore tight, black jeans and an old-fashioned red jerkin with large, brass buttons. ``Let's go,'' she said, her smile dimming, ``I have the urge to tell a story''.
They stood leaving their drinks unfinished and went to the cashier. She paid with a twenty from her jeans pocket, and as soon as they entered the night outside, she smiled again. A chill wind swept through the air, but the two men had dressed for it. She did not seem to notice. Robert let his anger simmer inside him, but Howard was too busy examining the exquisite creature before him. She was obviously inhuman, so strong, yet so beautifully intricate. A marble statue, painted and come to life. Galatea reborn.
They walked to the car, and after they got in, Rob asked, ``Where do we go?''
``Just drive,'' she replied.
Rob started the car and pulled out. When they reached the highway, she began, ``Once upon a time, there was a girl named Mary, named after the Virgin, born in 1892, in the year of Our Lord. Mary was a foolish girl, as girls tend to be. She dreamed of dark strangers, forbidden romances, disintegrating castles, and lurid woods where no man had ever been. The unicorn and the lion of Greater Britain. The savage and the tame. Unfortunately for Mary, her dreams came to life. She met that dark stranger, had that forbidden romance. She knew the darkest parts of those fairy tales and oh so dark woods. She met that savage lion and tamed unicorn in one man, one creature.''
``His name was Jonathan,'' she continued in a bitter voice, ``a child in a monster's body. He made pretense that he loved her. She thought she loved him too. He was a scientist in the modern vocabulary, he was always right. He was also a vampire. He infected others to alleviate his own curse and then watched them suffer, watched them go through the agonies of adjustment, an impartial observer. She suffered, while he watched all the physical and emotional pangs. He watched with the air of detachment, a scientist conducting an experiment. That was all she was to him, a toy, a novelty. He, however, was a sham. He was no scientist, though that is what he would call himself. He was a child hurting others so as not to think about his own hurts and fears. He made many children such as her, and killed them to keep their numbers down. They sapped his power and that he couldn't live with. He watched as everything and everyone Mary knew died and faded away. His real name was Peteor, a Russian. I was Mary, and your wife is meant to take my place.''
``It is almost dawn,'' she said, looking out the side window of the car. ``Time to pay my doctor a visit and pay my bill in full.''
VI
Kelly slept. She dreamed.
She walked in the midst of a forest, the one where he moved in his sleep. A mist writhed along the ground, curling at the movement of her dress. A candle moved, illuminating figures moving there, amidst the trees. The scent of perfume tainted the air as she drew closer. She saw them flitting between the trees and moving among the treetops. Their feet never touched the ground. White skin in linen - far too white skin and far too soiled linen. The wind caressed her gently, rustling her heavy dress. She walked into the clearing, feeling the crisp, dry leaves under her feet. The full moon grimaced at her from above. They moved past her, barely visible, but almost tangible, these spirits, these creatures of the night. She was surrounded.
She awoke.
Hands moved through her hair, curling it and playing. She smiled and thought it was him. She opened her eyes however to see a woman's face with a pale face and very red lips. The woman's violet eyes sparkled, almost luminescent. ``Sleep,'' the woman whispered, and Kelly fell back to sleep instantly.
``Your wife must be out of the picture for awhile,'' Mary said, ``otherwise she will warn and side with Jonathan.'' She added with a note of finality, ``I know.''
Robert and Howard stood by mutely. Rob's eyes fixed on his wife, resting on the couch.
``This was my home for almost a thirty years,'' Mary said. ``This shall be his tomb. Come with me.''
She walked through the room to a shadowy passage and entered. The two men followed cautiously. The passage beyond the portal bore no light and appeared as a black gulf. The two men were too afraid to enter, standing on its threshold till Mary lit a lantern hanging on the wall. She stood in a hallway fully unlike the classical splendor of the room in which the two still stood. Dampness filled the hall, and mildew grew on its walls. A stench of decay lingered in the air, and oily puddles stretched across the floor, making it dangerous to walk within. Mary took the lantern off its peg and motioned for her allies to follow. They entered the narrow hall and stayed close to her side. The passage ended twenty feet down at a spiral staircase came that led down into the darkness of the earth.
Mary stepped onto the first step without hesitation, and Howard followed. The light of the lantern bobbed up and down with each of Mary's steps. Shadows moved on the walls. Tainted water ran down the stone walls in trickles and the faint odor of sulfur wafted up from the dark depths below. Robert put his hand on the railing of the staircase to find cold metal, half eaten by rust under his hand. Its surface crumbled slightly under his touch, leaving brown stains on his palm. He stepped down to the first step and began his descent. The staircase groaned and creaked under their feet. It sent a screech of protest that echoed up the vertical passage with every shift of their weight.
After several turns around and down, the three reached the bottom of the stairs. They stepped into a puddle that had accumulated there. It covered the bottom step and spread out a few feet into the room. They saw, in the dim lamp light, an enormous cellar that stretched off into the darkness. Boxes, crates, cabinets, and broken furniture filled it to the ceiling making narrow aisles between the debris and stacks of boxes. The shadows from the lantern claimed one-third of the room, and the foul smell of sulfur mixed with rot grew stronger. All this trash and clutter concealed by the pristine room above.
Mary walked into the clutter as if she knew her way. The others followed her through the twisting path Mary took. She walked with hesitation and stopped in the corner of the room. The dust grew dense in the air, almost to the point of choking, and the stacked boxes towered over the paths below. A circular hole large enough to walk through opened in the wall on the far side of the basement, between stacks of clutter. It looked like a small subway tunnel and went back into the darkness beyond the range of the lantern. Mary took a breath and entered.
The stench of sulfur became overpowering in the proximity of the hole. Water, soaking through the walls, had left green and brown stains on the walls, and mold grew in the dry patches. The two men walked through the tunnel, and twenty fee in, they found another room on the other side. The room was barely ten by ten feet and this is where the sulfur smell came from. Across the room from its entrance, an Egyptian sarcophagus stood propped up against the wall. Gold foil coated its surface along with ruby and lapiz lazuli. Mary placed the lantern on the ground. It made the shadows longer and the darkness in the room greater.
``How like you, dark prince,'' Mary said. ``And how fitting for your final resting place.''
She drew from her sleeve a slim wooden rod, barely two feet long and braced with iron. A sharp point lay at one end of it. She threw it with all her considerable might toward the ancient coffin. With amazing accuracy, it pierced wood and metal in the chest of the sarcophagus where the occupants heart would be. Mary sprang forward and dug her hands into the hole the rod had made. In one motion, she ripped the lid of the sarcophagus in two. Pieces of wood shot off violently, and the halves of the heavy lid fell to either side of her with a heavy thud that echoed in the small room. The open coffin revealed no one. It was empty. The rod pierced only the wooden bottom of the coffin.
``He is here!'' she shouted in an inhuman volume. She grabbed the rod, prying it loose with no effort.
Robert opened his mouth to say something when a noise behind him stopped him instantly. He turned as did the others, and saw the source of the noise. There in the tunnel stood two darkened shapes. These shapes, vaguely human, shambled forward. The first stepped into the room and into the light of the lantern. Rob's eyes went wide as he recognized the person standing in the only exit to the room. Howard saw him also. It was only a boy, known to both men. A boy killed in one of the senseless deaths that befall youths. The last Howard had seen of this boy was three years ago. Rob, Kelly, and this boy went to Atlantic City for a two week vacation, as they did every year till that one last time. The boy, Alex, swam far too out into the ocean, and the undertow caught him, dragging him for miles. He drowned. The body was recovered two days later. It had rested peacefully until this nightmare awakened him.
The boy opened his still bluish lips and said, ``A kiss before bedtime, daddy?''
His voice cracked, but still bore that loathsome hunger in it that the two men had heard before, in a graveyard. Howard reacted before Rob could. He grabbed a jagged piece of the sarcophagus lid and rushed the boy, but Alex merely batted Howard away as if he weighted nothing. He went flying five feet to land, scraping on the floor. Alex stepped forward, a step toward his beloved father.
Rob fell to his knees and looked up into his son's face. Tears filled his eyes and fell down his face. ``Is it really you, Alex?'' he asked.
``Daddy,'' Alex said, ``of course it's me, but I'm so hungry.''
Rob hugged his son's legs tightly, grasping at the once fine suit the boy was buried in, which now smelled of rot and mold. The boy's mouth began a steady descent toward his father's neck. The boy stroked his father's hair and neck with love, with desire.
Howard sat up, rubbing the hurts of his recent impact with the floor. He looked helplessly at the sight before him. Alex opened wide his bluish lips to reveal a set of pointed teeth, and he prepared to kiss his father. Just before that awful mouth touched its goal, the boy shrieked as an animal might with pain and fright, as a bright red illumination filled the room.
All their gazes turned to the source of the new light, and they saw Mary holding a large, red stone in her hand. It glowed brightly outshining the lantern. Alex screamed again and tried desperately to break his father's embrace. The boy's preternatural strength seemed to have left him in the glow of the stone. The boy fell backwards, releasing him from his father's grasp. Mary stepped toward him, and Alex scrambled back into a corner of the room, whimpering all the way. Mary strode over to the boy, and Rob cried out. He rushed Mary, grabbing her arm.
``Stop hurting him!'' Rob screamed and tried with no result to sway Mary's arm.
``Him is right, Robert,'' Mary said calmly. ``This shell is not your child. The one who stole your wife controls the boy's body. This is not your son and that,'' motioning to the tunnel where another figure stood in the darkness, ``is not your father. They are both dead. These things are merely animated corpses - pseudovampires - extensions of Jonathan's will. They talk to you like they remember, but this also is a trick. They are dead, believe me. Death is final for humans. This does not bring them back.''
She knelt and touched the stone to Alex's forehead. The stone flared into brilliance as it made contact. Alex shrieked again, but this time long and deep. The scream rose in pitch, higher than a woman's could be and with far greater power. It was awful to hear.
The boy stopped and went into spasms for a few seconds as if in an epileptic fit, and then he stopped moving. The still body immediately began to crumble to dust.
``His body will rest now,'' Mary said. ``Nothing can animate him now.'' The Mary turned towards the tunnel.
``Did you think to catch me unawares in my own lair, pup,'' the figure in the dark said in a voice that did not belong to Rob's father.
``Cannot blame me for trying, Jonathan,'' Mary answered.
``You have damned yourself, woman,'' it said. ``You shall not live another week.''
``I have already challenged thee and lived,'' Mary replied. ``I know you too well, and you have taught me well of your arts. We shall see who is damned, old man.'' The voice did not reply, and its bearer collapsed on the floor of the tunnel. ``He has left here,'' Mary said. ``If he was here to begin with.'' She entered the passage and applied the stone to the corpse there. It also crumbled. ``He won't be able to use these again,'' she said. Mary walked into the room and collected the lantern and rod. She helped Howard to his feet and then went to Rob. ``Are you alright? To go on?''
Rob nodded, and they left the room. They crossed the basement and asceneded the creaking, rusted stairs. They entered the pillared room once again. The bench however was now empty. Kelly was gone.
VII
Mary sat on the couch where Kelly had only recently been. Rob leaned his head against a column by her side, and Howard occupied a chair a short way down the hall, his bulk filling it more than adequately.
``What was that stone you had?'' Howard asked. ``The one that glowed?''
``That,'' Mary replied, `` was a soulgem. It's an ancient artifact that does varioius things. It negates the power of a vampire, which was why the pseudovampires died. Jonathan's will no longer animated them. It weakens us sort of like crosses in your legends.''
``Cool,'' Howard asked, ``you have one of them.''
``I've collected a few for this battle,'' she said and stood up. She started pacing the room.
``So what do we do now?'' Rob asked
``I'm trying to think,'' Mary said. ``I'm trying to figure out where he'd go. He must be desparate. No one's invaded his home in over five hundred years.'' She stood and laughed. ``I really got his mad. I wonder what he would do if I burnt this place down.''
``Look!'' Rob said, raising him voice, ``my wife's life is at stake, as well as all of ours. What are you gonna do?''
``I'm gonna torch his hide,'' Mary replied, ``but first I've got to find him. I bet he's going to convert your wife tonight. He's got to move fast. Unfortunately, he's a creature of habit. I think we'll set a nice little trap for him.'' She grabbed Rob's hand and said, ``Come, we have much work to do.''
VIII
Evening fell on a remote section of woods in the Catskill Mountains. Black clouds overcast the sky and extinguished what beauty the setting sun held. Civilization still had trouble taking root in the rocky soil of these mountains, and the towns and cities had never penetrated its heart. The few who lived here were generally not untouched by this peculiar environment, in body, mind, and soul.
Before the sun disappeared fully from the sky, a large, black shaped flitted across the sky, and the few locals who saw it argued on porch fronts whether it was bat or bird. Later, they would rush home to the comfort of warm fires and loved ones and not realize why they felt so ill at ease on that particular night. The ``foreigners'' who saw it argued whether to go back to the city or Connecticut, Upstate, or Pennsylvania. Whether bat or bird or something else, it flew swiftly and close to the land. It slowed only when it came to a certain mountaintop, deep within the mountains and hidden in forests. It circled the low peak, a peak known by a select few people and known well by the Indians who once occupied the land. A peak topped with certain carved stones set in a circle. The shape landed in its midst, and Kelly slid to the ground from its back. It immediately changed form to resemble something human, Jonathan. Kelly looked around, convinced that this was the forest of her dreams.
``It is time,'' he said, putting his hands on either side of Kelly's neck.
``You're right about that one,'' Mary said, stepping out from her hiding place at the edge of the woods.
Jonathan turned. His face etched in anger. ``Maria,'' he said, ``you press your luck. You have committed enough trespass, girl. Leave now or die!''
Mary strode forward between two of the stones and answered, ``A place of ancient sacrifice will do as any other for this battle.''
``Do not try my patience, woman,'' Jonathan replied. ``My power is far greater than your own.''
``As members of this overindulgent era are fond of saying, knowledge is power, and I have well prepared for this. I have your wisdom and some knowledge of this age, which you have sorely neglected.''
He rushed her with hands upraised in preparation to throttle her. She grabbed his hand, sidestepped his lunge, and twisted his small finger away from his palm. He screamed in pain.
``Judo,'' she said, ``for instance. Now boys!''
Robert and Howard ran forth from opposite sides of the woods and toward the vampires. Both clutched multifaceted red stones which glowed slightly in their hands. The light grew as they approached the vampires. Each carried a small, linked chain in their hands. The brilliant red glare quickly grew to illuminate the scene.
``In the presence of even one of thine spawn,'' Mary quoted from memory, ``a vampyre may be rendered impotent by even a single soul gem.'' She turned her head toward Rob and said, ``the chain.''
She extended her free hand, and Rob gave her the chain. Manacles hung from either end of it, and she wrapped the chain around his arms, tying them behind his back. She quickly clamped the manacles to each of Jonathan's forearms with her free hand. Jonathan struggled, cursed, and threatened while the swift procedure took place, but he remained powerless to stop it. The elder vampire could not throw his spawn off him, and every time he tried, Mary pressed the finger back till he stopped in pain. Then she pushed him face forward into the dirt and took the second chain from Howard. She clamped one of its manacles to his ankle and then looped it over the first chain linking his arms. She pulled his clamped leg and the other upward and attached the other manacle to the last free limb. In the end, she had bound him. She leaned her head back and laughed long and hard.
``And to think,'' she said, ``I once feared you. Alright lads, give me the gems.''
They did so and she threw them one after the other with all her might into the surrounding dark of the woods. This caused Jonathan to laugh.
``Fool,'' he cursed, still laying on the ground and with spittle covering his chin, ``you think these mere chains will bind me!''
He confidently flexed his arms and then began to struggle fiercely. Mary watched him in amusement. Robert walked over to his wife, who had stood afraid and confused watching the whole scene enfold before her. She sat down on one of the stones in amazement.
Mary spoke. ``Those are your chains, made with your formulae - iron and crushed soul gem, unbreakable by a vampire. The same formula you used to bind countless children of yours before you killed them. You, my friend, are helpless, while I am at full power. You are a creature of habit and that is your downfall. If you drove instead of flew, we never could have caught you. You would have sensed us long before you came near, but because you were weakened by your transformation and the quickness of the flight, you did not. If you hadn't chosen the same place for her rebirth as mine - but then I suppose you have no choice in these matters. You are what you are.''
Mary walked over and kicked him, breaking a rib in the process with an audible crack. ``Now master, you will no longer play with other's lives. To truly be at the mercy of someone unimaginably more powerful than yourself. Now I am the master, and you shall be the sacrifice.''
She grabbed the chains running up from his ankles to the one at his wrists and picked him up. He yelped in discomfort. She carried him to the sacrificial stone that Kelly was to lay on as she had laid upon so long ago, and she dropped him face down on its rough surface.
Jonathan turned his head to the side to face her and pleaded, ``Please, Maria, I'll do anything?! I'll give you anything! Without me, who will be there for you?! You'll be alone! Forever!''
She grabbed his shoulder and yanked his up to his knees effortlessly. ``Beg for your life, promise me the world and heavens above. My ears are deaf. If there is anything I've learned in this preternaturally long life you've cursed me with, it's that your promises are for the moment only. As soon as you've gotten what you want - your freedom or answers to your questions - your promises are dust as you too shall soon be!''
Mary dropped him, letting him fall face first back to the stone. She walked calmly over to the woods where she once hid and returned with a square can, plainly marked gasoline. Its contents sloshed around as she walked back to his side.
``Please!'' Jonathan screamed again. His mouth open wide with terror.
``I shall be merciful,'' she replied coldly. ``You shall burn fast.''
She poured the gasoline over him, over his hair and fine clothes. The gasoline poured out fitfully as air rushed into the can. The liquid soon drenched him, and he screamed. Mary threw the empty can into the woods. She turned, walked to the nearest stone, and sat on it, facing her captive.
``You don't have to watch if you don't want to,'' she said to her human audience.
``I want to,'' Rob said quietly, ``after what he did to my family and my life.'' Rob looked into his wife's face to see her voiceless decision. Kelly nodded weakly, as if from the midst of a dream.
``I sure as hell don't,'' Howard said, turning around and walking towards the woods.
The conflagration started as soon as Howard disappeared from sight by Mary's will alone. A single long scream erupted from the fire, which soon filled the night. It erupted from center of the fire, sounding of rage more than pain, and it died just as quickly. The fire grew quickly and rose high before them. Its heat touched their faces and then began to recede just as fast as the scream. All that was left was a red hot chain and a collection of ashes. Mary walked over and waved a hand over it. A breeze came at her command and blew the ashes away.
``It is finished,'' she said.
Howard came back into the clearing and faced her. ``What will you do now?'' he asked.
``Go on,'' she replied, ``as always.''
``If you ever need a friend...'' Rob began.
``No,'' she cut him short. ``It'd be better if I left you alone. My kind intruded on your lives enough. Goodbye dear Howard and Robert. I wish you luck.''
She walked off into the trees, never to be seen again by any present.
``Goodbye,'' Rob whispered and tightened his grip on his wife's shoulder. ``I guess we better get home. It's a long walk down to the car.''
Kelly stood and hugged her husband tightly. She began to sob. Rob looked at her tenderly and brushed her tears away.
Howard shook his head and sat down on one of the stones. ``How am I ever going to explain this to Gloria.''
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