Chapter 67
Once James was about thirty feet from reaching his sister, a movement to his left caught his eye. It was so quick, he wasn’t sure what he was looking at at first. It almost seemed like a person crouched on the ground between the garbage receptacles, readjusting on tired haunches. James froze, he peered into the darkness, looking for an edge, the outline of an object, a human form. Even though he realized his hands were shaking, he took a step forward.
He was certain his eyes had been playing tricks on him, and yet, he had a feeling in his gut like none he’d ever felt before. No, that wasn’t true. He’d felt it once before, when he was six, and he was standing in the same place Margie stood now.
James swallowed down his fear, and a bit of bile, and took another step. Yes, there was something there. He could see it now, see the form, where the darkness seemed raised a bit along the edges. Just as he was about to call out to see whom it might be, there was a loud crashing noise as whatever it was shoved both garbage bins directly at him with excessive force and then shot up off the ground, sprinting in the direction from which James had come.
One of the bins hit him in the shin, and it smarted horribly, but when he saw Margie leap over the other one, dodge around him, and take off running behind the lurker, he knew he had to do something. He couldn’t let her go off by herself running after some sort of vagabond. Even though he thought he may have seen something white and shimmery protruding from this person’s mouth, that did not make it a vampire. And even though it had taken off like a vampire bat out of hell, that was no reason to think it was a bloodsucker.
Realizing his feet were tangled up in spilled garbage, James carefully stepped out of the trap, and forgetting the pain in his leg, he took off after Margie. She was gone from his sight, and he wondered how that could be. His sister had never been particularly fast.
He reached the end of the alley and saw her down the street, running right down the center. The shape of the man from the alley was ahead of her, but Margie was closing in. It didn’t seem possible. How could she run as fast that person was running? The way he’d shot out of the alley, there was simply no way she could ever catch him.
And yet she was. Margie was gaining on it, and as James began to sprint after her, he realized he was also catching up to his sister. His legs began to sting in a way he’d never felt before, like there was an electrical current flowing through them, and as he neared his sister’s location, and closed in on the lurker, his stomach began to flip flop again as well.
Margie was headed into a much busier part of town now. She ran through intersections without even looking. He feared for her safety, but it never crossed his mind that he was doing the same thing. She was within a block of the strange man now. The person must have felt it as well, as he turned to glance over his shoulder, perhaps to see how close she was, and James froze in his tracks. The light from a gas lamp caught him, illuminating his features. He was the ghastliest soul James had ever seen. His hair was jet black and stuck out in tufts around his gaunt face. His eyes were wide with fear, or perhaps that’s what they always looked like. His hands were elongated, with talon-like claws at the end of each finger. His flesh was pasty looking, more of a gray color than white. And worst of all, from his mouth, even from here, James could see a set of pointy, gleaming ivory fangs protruding from his upper jaw.
Margie was chasing a Vampire.
James was chasing a Vampire!
“Margie!” he shouted, thinking perhaps it might be best to let this particular beast go. What would they do if they caught up to it? If it truly was a Vampire, it could kill the both of them. So why was it running? They were nothing more than a couple of unarmed kids. James was tempted to glance behind himself to see if there was something else worth running from, but he didn’t have time. He needed to catch up to his sister and make her stop.
“Margie!” She didn’t turn, didn’t slow, just kept sprinting. She was closing in on him now. In a moment, James assumed she’d hurl herself at the monster, knock him to the ground, and then—and then what?
He could see it happening now, all laid out in front of him. The Vampire crossed into the next street, Margie growing so close she could nearly reach him, and then, somewhere in the distance, a familiar sound rang out. James couldn’t place it just then, his mind preoccupied with other thoughts. A split second later, he realized exactly what it was. “Margie!” he screamed one more time, coming to a halt in the middle of the road. James watched in horror, absolutely nothing he could do to save her.
The trolley hit Margie going full speed, the driver likely not even seeing her there. The horses plowed into her, knocking her up into the air, and then the full weight of the car. She bounced off of the front, near the top, and toppled to the ground. As fast as they had been running, he could see it all now in slow motion. Margie landed a few feet away from the trolley, which the driver pulled to a stop once he realized what had happened.
James took off again, and even though he was a half a block away, he reached his sister before the few passengers on the car were able to get out and walk over to her.
“Margie,” he said, dropping to a knee and carefully cradling her head in his hands.
There was blood everywhere. He could tell without even looking at the back of her head that her skull was broken. One leg and both of her arms jetted off in unnatural angles, and blood was trickling from the corner of her mouth. James felt for a pulse and was relieved when he found one, though it was incredibly weak.
“I… I didn’t even see her,” the driver stammered. James glanced up at the portly man with a small moustache who held his hat in his hand, rubbing the brim of it. “Is she… dead?”
“No,” James said.
“Someone fetch a doctor!” and older woman called.
“I am a doctor,” James replied, and if the group looked at him wide-eyed the way most people did when he made that announcement, he didn’t see, and he didn’t care. “I need to get her home.”
He glanced around and saw a man with a wagon bed pulled by two horses who had come to a stop nearby, watching the scene intently. “You! Can you give us a ride home? It’s a just few blocks.”
“Certainly,” the man replied, pulling the wagon closer.
James hated to think of moving her, knowing she was unstable, but he had no choice. He took off his outer shirt and folded it up, pressing it to the back of her head as he scooped his sister into his arms. She felt incredibly light, and he had no problems lifting her and standing at the same time. He rushed to the wagon and was in the back of it almost instantaneously, Margie’s head resting in his lap.
He looked up to see the owner staring at him, standing near the tailgate, his mouth agape. “Let’s go!” James demanded.
The man nodded his head, slapping his mouth shut, and James hollered directions to their house. As they pulled away, he glanced over his shoulder. There, in the distance, but close enough to see what had unfolded, stood a lone figure in the shadows, the only part of him identifiable from here, his long, sharp teeth.
