opens his mouth and lets his fangs slide out. “Nice trick” I tell him.
“I need to get outta here,” he tells me. “I don’t wanna lose it in here. I need to eat. Hell, they could let ol’ Harry loose in here an’ save this here city so much money. Look, I don’t wanna hurt nobody...”
“Says the vampire.”
“...but if I get into a frenzy, no prison on God’s green Earth could stop me. You thank this cell is keepin’ me in here?” he asks. He stands and faces the wall. It’s solid. Concrete and steel. He shoves it with one hand and it creeks, actually bending with his strength. “An’ that’s after not feedin’ for a week. I can get outta here.”
“Then why don’t you?” I ask. With the power he just showed me there's no reason for him to be locked up.
“’Cause I ain’t guilty,” he says. “I jus’ wanna go back to my life. I don’t give a good damn ‘bout no war.”
“War?” I say. “What war?”
“Vampire an’ werewolves” he says. “Hollywood shit. I jus’ wanna be free, fella. Now can you help me out?”
“I don’t work for free,” I tell him. “I didn’t come to liberate you, Mr. Tooper. I was just following a letter I received. And the lady that sent the letter was your former landlord who is now dead so my job is over. Good luck with your trial. Guard?” I slide out of the cell and take a deep breath.
“Gonna let a innocent fella rot?” Harry asks me. “I have money. That’s not a problem. But I tell ya this: I’ll get outta here. An’ then I’ll find ya.”
“I look forward to it,” I tell him as I leave. I get to my car and sigh. Louise slides into the seat next to me and looks concerned. I take her hand and squeeze it. She smiles.
“I met a vampire today.”
“What was he like?” she asks me.
“He was a good guy” I say and wipe my brow. “Damn it. He was a good guy.”
“I don’t like you either!”
It’s almost midnight and I’m stuck in downtown L.A fighting twin children that are haunting their parents. Guess they didn’t like the idea of their mother replacing them with two adopted children. These kids are really strong for their age. Or I’m just exhausted from the day. Give me a break. My ex wife was murdered and I met a vampire.
While I drag one of the kids by his hair and the other holds on to my ankles, I think back to Harry Tooper. I kind of figured that maybe that vampires existed, but I assumed that they were all either extremely old and extremely far away from me. And werewolves? I saw one once but did not stick around long enough to question him. God, the power Harry had! Even though he could not hurt me, I can only imagine what it would feel like to be normal and have him lure you towards him. Maybe I should help him out.
He did say he had money.
“Be careful!” Mr. Simmons says while I fight his ghost kids. His wife is sitting in the corner crossing herself and muttering prayers. It didn’t work before she called me and it sure as Hell isn’t working now. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
“They’re ghosts,” I remind him. “I’m the one that could get hurt.” I sling the kid at my feet out of the door and toss the other out by the head. They rush towards the door and I lift my hand, shutting them out. They pound on my shield and start screaming. “I hate kids.”
“What now?” Mr. Simmons asks me. “Can they come back?”
“Only if you tell me to let them in,” I say. “Otherwise I send them away.”
“Away where?” Mrs. Simmons asks. “Heaven?”
“Uh...” I look at the brats seated at the door shouting and consider lying to her. “It depends on...stuff.” I lay my hands on each of them and they disappear. “So that’ll be $800.”
I leave their home and climb into my car. Louise is waiting for me and crying. I know she knows what I did to those kids. I also know that she knows I know that she knows. I also know that she knows that I know why she is so upset about what I did.
“I didn’t kill them,” I say to her. “I just sent them away.”
“I know, but they were just kids,” she sobs. “How could you do that so easily?”
“It wasn’t easy,” I assured her. “I need a drink.”
“No, you need to talk” she says. “That is one of your biggest problems. You keep so much of yourself bottled in and in turn turn to the bottle.”
“Did you learn that from Anthony’s therapist?” I ask her. “I don’t need this right now. I just want to go home and rest. And it would be nice to wake up without you staring at me.”
“Then why don’t you send me away to where you sent those kids and everyone else?” she asks. “If I’m that much of a burden then make me disappear.” I look at her and contemplate it.
“That’s what I thought. Just go home and drink yourself stupid. I’m going to see Tony.”
“Have fun” I tell her as she disappears. Like I need this crap in my life.
I sit on my couch unable to fall asleep. Louise hasn’t shown up since I’ve been here. I almost wish I hadn’t made Richard disappear. I need someone to talk to. I consider calling the therapist Anthony and Louise talked about. Then I remember that I never finished talking about how I got my abilities. I don’t like to call them “powers.” Flying like that Johnny Panic guy; that’s power. What I have is a curse if you ask me.
So I woke up in bed. I had a lump the size of a tennis ball on my head. Like I said, my parents thought that if you went to the hospital you were going to Hell, so they gave me an icepack. When I woke up my room was full of people. I didn’t know most of them. A few I knew from old family photos. Really old family photos. An older woman put her hand on my head and smiled. I heard my door open and my mother walk in. I smelled her before I saw her. She had this heavy perfume she loved to wear. Everything seemed fine until she walked through the old lady.
“Mom...” I said.
“Shut up and rest,” she said as she took the melted icepack from my head and slapped another on. “We’ll never be able to go back to the church after the stunt you pulled.”
“Where’s Lucy?” I asked. I wanted to see my sister.
“Don’t worry about that now,” she said as she left the room. After she closed the door Lucy walked over to the bed and smiled at me.
“Hi, Stevie,” she said. “I don’t like it here.”
“I don’t either,” I told her.
“You aren’t where I am,” she said and began to cry. I did not understand what she meant. “I don’t know anybody and...”
“My head really hurts...” I moaned. Lucy reached for me and I grabbed her arm. She vanished. The other people in the room gasped and looked at each other. The older lady looked at me and smiled.
“I’m next,” she said and took my hand. I didn’t know what to do. “Where’s Lucy?” I asked her. “What happened to her?”
“She’s in a better place.” To this day I hate hearing people say that.
A better place usually means somewhere I'm not.
The next morning after seeing my first vampire I wake up on the floor. I have no idea how I got here. I don’t mean that I fell out of the bed next to my nightstand. I am close to my door, halfway into the hall. I stumble to my feet, holding my head. There’s dried blood near my eye. What in the hell happened? I hear a crash and rush into the living room, trying not to fall over all the garbage on the floor. This is garbage that wasn’t there when I went to sleep.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” I ask Louise. Apparently she’s strong enough to move all of my furniture. She’s trashed my entire place.
“You monster...” she hisses at me. “You knew!” I can feel her pulsing. Pulsing is never a good sign with ghosts and spirits. It means that you need to duck soon or hide behind something.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about” I tell her.
“Beth,” she says. I try to hide my flinch but she sees it. “You knew as soon as she was born!”
Now, let me explain something. Louise a
nd I should never had tried to have a kid. Our relationship was never great. Sex was all we had in common. When she gave birth to Beth I knew she would die soon. Nothing was wrong with her. She was born on exactly the day our doctor said she would be. No health issues. But as soon as she was out of Louise half her soul was hanging out. You’d think she was a conjoined twin.
When she died I was upset, but not surprised. My reaction to her death always bothered Louise. She wondered why I was not more torn about it. I never told Louise I knew she would die. You think its hard burying a child? Try sending its soul away and then burying its body.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I tell Louise. She points to the floor near the table and there she is: our daughter––a soul too young to do anything. Not even cry. She just lays there.
“How did you bring her back?” I ask. Louise says nothing. “Do not make me ask again.” Once you send a soul away you should not bring it back. You can, just as you can drink bleach, but it’s not a good idea. Like I mentioned before, I hate shouting. Bad things happen when I do. “How did you bring her back?!” Louise slams against the counter hard enough to crack it. She crawls over to Beth and reaches for her. I raise my palm to Beth and she disappears but not before emitting a high pitched squeal. I feel blood come from my ears.
“Why?!” Louise screams. Before I can answer there’s pounding at my door. I look at Louise and hold her in place. It takes too much energy to do this and I hate doing it. She can't even speak. I stagger into my living room