Chapter 148
Norman, Oklahoma, 1959
The front door slammed as Nancy took off, the keys to the new Caddy in her hand. Elliott been declared Oklahoma’s top used car salesman for the second year in a row, and last year, Mr. Anderson had said if he did it again, he’d buy him a new Cadillac. Elliott had worked his tail end off all year long to win the keys to that car, out selling the next highest dealer at his location, Peter, by over $200,000 and the next highest salesman in the state by over $50,000.
Nancy had been happy to have the car, but she didn’t seem particularly grateful to him, which shouldn’t have surprised him. She seemed to think the bills paid themselves. She was headed over to Linda’s house and then to the movies, which was fine with him. Getting married because she was pregnant might have seemed like the noble thing to do at the time, but he’d realized pretty quickly this was nothing more than a union in name only, and Nancy wasn’t any more interested in being with him than she was giving up her cigarettes.
He couldn’t blame her for needing a break, however. Even though he loved spending time with his toddlers, Wally was three now, and Michael was nearly two and into everything. Elliott loved playing with his boys, but he wouldn’t want to do it all day long like their mother did. So when she asked to go out in the evening, which seemed to be more and more the norm, he let her go.
Most evenings, he played with the boys for a few hours before putting them to bed and spending the rest of the evening cleaning up the house. He understood Nancy had her hands full, but the boys did nap during the day. He wondered why she couldn’t seem to get the dishes done then. At least she usually managed to vacuum at some point during the day since he’d hate to have to sweep the floors while the babies were asleep.
He finished drying the last dish and putting it in the cupboard before stretching and grabbing a towel to wipe the counter off. A strange noise from the back yard caught his attention. He peered out the window above the sink but couldn’t see anything. It was more of a scratching sound, like fingernails along the wooden fence, and at first he thought it might be a tree branch, but then, he couldn’t think of any trees in his yard or his neighbors that would’ve been low enough for that. Confused, he walked over to the light switch and flipped it off, hoping that might help him have a better view.
He could see one large elm tree that shaded most of his own back yard, as well as the old rusty swing set he intended to paint for the kids. Beyond that, there was the fence and the neighbor’s roofline. Mrs. Cooper was a nice older woman who lived alone, and he often mowed her yard for her since most of her family lived in Tulsa. He didn’t see anything unusual and was just about to go back to the light switch when something moved in Mrs. Cooper’s back yard, and Elliott froze.
A strange sensation hit him in the gut, like nothing he’d ever felt before. It was almost as if the usual butterflies one might get from being excited or nervous had grown spikes on their wings and were fluttering around shredding his insides. Whatever it was, the only times he’d ever remotely felt like this before were when he’d seen those things in the woods at Lawson’s Point and the time he’d noticed the odd coloring around that bus driver’s eyes.
It had been a very long time since he’d even let the stories Peggy had told him about Vampires enter his mind. While he was aware his younger brother was obsessed with the notion that someday he’d be able to Transform into some sort of warrior and chase these things down, Elliott was too busy living his current mundane existence to even consider trying to develop superpowers. But now, looking out his own window into the neighbor’s back yard, he realized the movement appeared to be a tall, thin man with long dark hair. It reminded him of the creatures from the woods, and instinctively, he knew he had to stop the guy.
With his boys sleeping in the other room, Elliott felt his options were limited. He certainly couldn’t leave them in a dangerous position, but then, the call to face who or whatever was in his neighbor’s yard refused to go unheeded. Quickly, he took the largest knife he could find from the kitchen draw, tiptoed to his sons’ room to make sure they were still sleeping soundly, locked their bedroom door from the inside, knowing he had the key safely put away in the kitchen, and then locked and dead bolted the front door before grabbing his keyring and heading out the back door, also locking that.
Satisfied it would take some work for anyone or anything to get into his own house, Elliott headed for the fence between himself and Mrs. Cooper’s back yard. It was about five feet tall, and he’d never thought of trying to scale it before, but with the knife in one hand, he grabbed hold of the top of the fence and vaulted himself across, not even touching the tops of the slats with his legs as he leapt agilely to the ground. “Well, that’s different,” he muttered, but he didn’t wait to process the feat. Rather, he headed off in the direction where he’d last seen the figure.
Rounding the corner of the house, he saw what appeared to be a man pulling the screen off of a window that looked to lead to the dining room. At the sound of Elliott’s footfalls, he turned, and his face morphed from stealth to a gruesome grin. “Well, it looks like our little plan worked,” the beast growled through bared teeth. His fangs were lengthy, protruding from his upper gum at least an inch past his droopy, blood red bottom lip. He released the window and turned to face Elliott, who stared at him in confusion.
“Our plan?” he asked, not having a clue what the monster might be talking about.
He began to laugh, gesturing back at Elliott’s house. Shadows passed across the front of the house, and Elliott realized he’d fallen for a rouse. The Vampire was part of a team, one where he other members were now infiltrating his home, where his children were sleeping.
