“No…”
“Then how do you know? Maybe it’s not windows, maybe it’s a secret tunnel with mirrors placed exactly right that reflect the sun from somewhere above ground, and it hits one mirror and then the next, bam bam bam, and then the whole basement gets filled with sunlight, and FWWGGGGHHH.” Dill imitated a bonfire going up in flames.
“Just for killing vampires underground,” Peter deadpanned.
“If the last few weeks at your house have taught me anything,” Dill lectured, “it’s that you gotta be prepared for everything. Your granddad obviously is – I mean, come on, a vampire-blocker metal neck thingee. That’s AWESOME.”
“Mercy’s still out there, Dill.”
“Yeah.”
“We gotta go stop her.”
“Um…didn’t you just say Mercy’s still out there?”
“Yes.”
“So, see, after that you should say, ‘Which is why you gotta stay in your house and not go outside tonight, Dill.’ See, that’s what you shoulda said.”
“Think about it: Agnes disappeared yesterday, and now she’s back as a vampire. Mercy’s tried to get me twice now. Who do you think she’s going to go after next?”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line.
“ME?” Dill cried in panic.
“No, she doesn’t even like you. I think she’s going after Katie Brammelson, her other best friend.”
“Wow.” Dill whistled softly. “Sucks to be Katie Brammelson right about now.”
“Dill, we’ve got to go save her!”
“Um…no.”
“Dill, you heard that story Grandfather told us in the truck: thirty people died and became vampires till somebody stopped it. We’ve got to stop it before it gets out of hand.”
“That was, like, five hundred years ago,” Dill said.
“It was not.”
“People became vampires a lot faster back then.”
“What?! Why do you say that?”
“Because, uhhhh…they had less blood in their bodies. They were smaller.”
“Dill.”
“You ever been in a really old house? Eveything’s littler than normal – little beds, little doorways – like hobbits or something.”
“Dill!”
“Let your grandfather handle it, Pete. He seems to want to.”
“Well, I can’t get down in the basement ‘cause the door is locked. And if I knock on the door it’ll wake my mom up, and she’ll stop me for sure!”
“Can’t it wait till morning?”
“No.”
“What’s going to stop Mercy from killing us, huh?”
“I have an idea. Grandfather gave it to me.”
32
The boys sat on their bikes in the battered garage behind the house.
“Do vampires need to be invited into garages before they can bite you?” Dill asked nervously.
“It’s part of the house…I’m sure it works the same way,” Peter reassured him.
“You better be right.” Dill fiddled with the pie tin dangling around his neck. Peter had cut out the center, and after much grunting, they had forced it over Dill’s jug ears and down to his neck.
“It’s too loose,” Dill complained.
Peter ripped scotch tape from a plastic dispenser. “Hold on.” He bent Dill’s pie tin so it overlapped, then taped it together so it held more tightly on his neck.
“This sucks, man. It’s not going to stop anything.”
“It’ll be fine,” Peter assured him. He adjusted the pie tin around his own neck, replaced the tape in his school backpack, and slung his arms through the straps.
“Unh-unh. She’s going to bite right through this, dude, and then it’s GAME OVER.”
“Do you have a filling in your teeth?”
“Yeaaahh…” Dill said warily, not really sure where this was going.
“You ever touch a fork and your tongue to it at the same time?”
“Oh man, that’s the worst! It’s that weird tingling, it’s horrible!” Dill paused. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Biting a pie tin is just as bad. It really tastes horrible.”
Dill looked at Peter like you idiot. “You’re telling me you hope to stop an undead bloodsucker from killing me by making her teeth feel weird?”
“Well, it’ll be really tough to punch through, too.” Peter shifted uneasily. He decided not to tell Dill how badly the kitchen screen door was shredded. “Besides, we don’t have much of a choice.”
“Why don’t you just call Katie? Tell her, ‘Hey, Katie, if any dead friends of yours stop by tonight, don’t let ‘em in, okay?’ Just tell her that.”
“I already called. Her dad answered and yelled at me, then hung up.”
Dill scrunched up his face. “It’s only, like, nine o’clock!”
“It’s almost 10:30 now.”
“Whatever. I still say you knock on the basement door. If your mom sends you to bed… well…that’s not the worst thing that could happen tonight, that’s for sure.”
“I already tried. I knocked as loud as I could without her hearing. Grandfather didn’t answer at all.” Peter put his hand on Dill’s shoulder. “There’s no other way, Dill.”
Dill sighed. “Yeah there is. The other way is we stay home and don’t become undead. Why are you so set on trying to stop Mercy?”
“Do you know what Agnes said to me when she was in the living room?”
“According to you, she said a lot.”
“She said she would turn Beth into a vampire if I didn’t come with her – and then she flew upstairs to try and take her.” Peter shook his head. “We can’t let that happen to anybody else, Dill. We’ve got to try.”
“Heck, she can have my brothers and sisters, as long as she doesn’t bring them back.”
Peter looked into Dill’s eyes. “Are you up for this?”
Dill glared at him. “All this to save a stupid girl. I don’t even like girls, man.”
“Come on.”
The two boys pedaled off, down the driveway and off into the night.
33
It only took 20 minutes to get to Katie Brammelson’s house. The bike ride took them past Our Lady of Perpetual Peace again.
“Wanna stop in and say hi to Father Stevens?” Peter asked.
Dill just snorted.
They found her house on a winding back road. Peter replaced the school directory in his backpack, and they stared up at the dark windows.
“Okay, now what?” Dill inquired. “Cuz I know if you weren’t going to call her dad back after he hung up on you, you’re definitely not going to knock on her door in the middle of the night.”
“Um…let’s check out the house.”
They crept around the back. There was a window ajar on the second story. Curtains inside blew faintly in the night breeze.
“You think that’s hers?” Peter whispered.
“This is the absolute stupidest thing we’ve ever done,” Dill said.
“Why?”
“Why? Cuz I’m standing outside of the house of some girl I hardly know, and we don’t know if that’s her room, and you won’t go knock on the door, so we’re gonna turn around and not do a dang thing, and any second I might get bit and turned into a vampire cuz all I’ve got on to protect me is a pie tin around my neck!” Dill fumed, then scratched under the metal. “And it itches!”
“Who’s that?” called a girl’s voice.
“Oh crap,” Dill whimpered as he hid behind Peter.
Katie Brammelson stuck her head out the window. She was a redhead, but in the darkness her hair looked almost completely black.
“Katie?” Peter whispered.
“Who’s that? Who are you?” Katie asked fearfully.
“It’s me, Peter Normal. And Dill Bodinski. From school.”
Dill waved over Peter’s shoulder. “Hi.”
“What are you doing here?”
“We came here to war
n you.”
“Warn me about what?”
“Not to let anybody in.”
Katie paused and cocked her head. “You came all the way over here to tell me not to let anybody in.”
“Yes.”
Katie did an exaggerated shrug. “Uh, why?”
Peter and Dill looked at each other.
“You’re the big genius here, man, not me,” Dill muttered.
Peter looked back up at Katie in the second story window and took a big breath.
“Mercy Chalmers. She’s not dead. Well, she is dead, but she’s back. She’s a vampire now, and we’re worried that she’s coming after you. But vampires can’t come inside a house unless you invite them in, and that’s why we’re here, to tell you not to let Mercy or Agnes inside. Except Agnes won’t be a problem, because my grandfather has her locked up at home in the basement.” Even in the moonlight, Peter could see Katie’s look of alarm. He added hurriedly, “Because she attacked me. She’s a vampire too, now, and we thought that since Mercy turned her into one, she was coming after you next.”
“You’re freakin’ her out, man,” Dill whispered into Peter’s ear.
Katie disappeared and the window slid shut.
Dill hung his head. “Great.”
Peter tried to put a positive spin on it. “Well…now she knows.”
“Why’d you have to tell her the whole story? It’s a pretty freaky story, you know. She’s probably in there dialing 911. ‘Hello, police, I have two crazies out on my front lawn…’”
“I didn’t see you volunteering for anything,” Peter retorted.
“I haven’t even seen Mercy yet. For all I know, you could’ve gone crazy, and you’re just making this stuff up.”
Peter scowled at Dill. “What are you saying?”
“I believe you, I believe you,” Dill backtracked. “But I only believe you cuz of the other pretty weird stuff – ”
“You mean the dead guys in the garden patch.”
Dill winced. “See, why do you gotta go there? We’re out in the middle of the night, there’s a vampire on the loose, and you bring that up. I told you, I don’t wanna talk about – ”
CLICK.
Both boys jumped and screamed.
“Shush!” Katie said from the back door, now wide open. “You’ll wake up my parents.”
Dill sighed in relief. “Oh, man, we thought you’d split and called the cops.”
“I don’t understand a single thing about what you said – ” Katie began.
Peter held out his hands, palms facing out, like you can stop right there. “I know it’s a hard story to believe – ”
“ – but I think it’s really, really mean of you to go talking about my best friend that way,” Katie choked, her voice a mixture of sadness and anger. “If this is some kind of a joke, it’s a really stupid one, and I hate both of you.”
“Whoa, nelly, hold the phone,” Dill said. “We’re trying to save you.”
“Good,” Peter whispered to him.
“See? I can step up,” Dill whispered back.
Katie started to cry.
Dill sighed. “Awwww crap. You handle it.”
“Katie, we didn’t want to make you sad, it’s just we were really worried about you.”
From bawling to raging, Katie turned on a dime. “It’s not nice to talk about people’s best friends like that,” Katie spat. “Don’t you know how it makes me…”
Katie trailed off, then peered more closely.
“Are those pie tins around your neck?”
Dill put his hand over his eyes in shame.
“Uhhhh, yeah,” Peter said.
“…why?” Katie asked.
“Because they’ll make her teeth feel all googly if she tries to bite us,” Dill answered with a complete lack of conviction.
Katie squinted like she could hear the words, but they weren’t making an ounce of sense.
Dill shook his head. “I know, I know.”
“Katie, you gotta believe me. Mercy’s shown up twice now, trying to get me to come with her. She got to Agnes – I seriously think she’s coming after you next.”
“Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait.” Katie held up her hands and snapped her head, like oh no you did NOT just say that. “Mercy Chalmers, my best friend, is back from the dead, and she came to you first, Agnes second, and me last? I don’t think so. Now I know you’re lying.”
Dill stood on his tiptoes to get next to Peter’s ear. “Explain to me again: why are we risking our lives to save her?”
“If she’s like this alive, can you imagine what she would be like dead?”
“Mm…good point.”
Peter turned back to Katie, expecting another outburst. Instead, she stood there with her mouth wide open and her eyes bulging.
“I didn’t mean it, Katie,” Peter apologized. “We’re all really scared right now, which is why I just said that, and why you’re being…the way you are, I guess, but – ”
“Mm…” Katie mumbled.
“What?” Peter asked.
“M-m-mm…”
“Huh?” Dill leaned in closer to get a better listen.
“M-m-m-m-mercy,” Katie stuttered and raised her pointed finger.
Peter and Dill turned around, right into the smiling black eyes of Mercy Chalmers.
34
“AAAAAAHHH!” Dill and Peter screamed. They immediately tried to back up, but instead toppled into Katie, which sent them all falling into the house.
“Huh? Wha – ha ha ha ha! We’re safe!” Dill crowed as he realized they were inside the kitchen.
He forgot about his leg, which was still sticking out over the cement porch.
With one swipe, Mercy snagged his foot and yanked Dill out of the doorway. Kicking and screaming, he dangled upside down from her outstretched arm.
“You see this? This is a pie tin on my neck! Don’t even TRY biting me!”
Peter and Katie stood up inside the house.
“Mercy, let Dill go, PLEASE,” Peter begged.
“Mmmmm…no.” She gave an evil smile. “I’ve decided I like Dilly better than you. He’s not mean to me, are you, Dilly?”
“My name is DILL, and I’ll be mean to you, give me a chance! I was mean to you all the time behind your back, I said awful things – ”
“SHUT UP!” Mercy roared, loud as a tiger.
“Okay,” Dill squeaked.
“Mercy, please. Don’t hurt Dill…you can have me,” Peter said.
Mercy turned up her nose. “I don’t like you anymore.”
“That’s my fault, Mercy, not his…please…I’ll do anything you want, just don’t hurt Dill.”
“Yes, don’t hurt Dill,” Dill said in a little mouse voice.
“YOU TAKE AWAY ALL MY FRIENDS!” Mercy shouted at Peter. “You take away Agnes, you take away Katie – I think I’ll take away one of your friends, now, Peeeteeeeeer.”
“Peter didn’t take me away – you didn’t even come get me!” Katie suddenly wailed. “You’re alive, and you didn’t even tell me?”
Mercy looked at her quizzically. “I’m not alive. I’m a vampire.”
Katie stomped her foot.
“And you went to Peter before me?! And Agnes – why would you choose Agnes?” Katie went from shouting to whining. “We were best friends, Mercy – why would you choose Agnes?”
“Because you’re so annoying?” Dill offered helpfully.
Mercy shook him back and forth violently.
“I’ll shut up, I’ll shut up,” Dill babbled.
“Agnes lives closer. Lived closer.” She glared at Peter. “And I made a mistake with Peeeteeeer here. He’s done nothing but hurt me and be mean to me and…and…”
Peter couldn’t believe it. Was Mercy choking up?
“…and I’ll never let you hurt me again, Peeeteeeer,” she snarled. “Now I’m going to hurt YOU.”
With one flick of her arm, she flipped Dill like a ragdoll and caught him by the collar.
“I’m gonna puke,” Dill hacked.
She hooked both of her arms under Dill’s and brought her hands up behind his head.
“Hey, that’s a full nelson!” Dill exclaimed, amazed. “Do you watch wrestling?”
“Shut up! Goodbye, Peeeteeeeer.”
“MERCY, NO!” Peter yelled as he launched himself out of the doorway.
Too late. She shot into the sky, dragging Dill along with her. Peter’s hands closed on air as she rose into the night.
Katie shrieked. Peter stared up as the two small outlines moved darkly against the stars and began to hover away over the treetops.
“Peter, help!” Dill cried. “Help me, help meeee!”
Peter rushed to his bike.
“What should we do, what should we do?” blubbered Katie. “Should I call the police?”
Peter whipped off his backpack, ripped out a pen and paper, and wrote down his telephone number. “Call my house, NOW. Ask for my grandfather and tell him it’s an emergency. Tell him Mercy took Dill and I’m going to save him.”
“How are you going to do that?”
Peter slung his backpack over his shoulder and stepped onto his bike. “I don’t know,” he whispered, then raced off down the street.
35
He could see them – barely – in the moonlight. Mercy was moving slowly over the treetops. Though Dill was a scrawny little kid, she probably wasn’t used to carrying something heavy while she flew.
Dill.
Peter cursed himself for dragging Dill along. He’d been right, this was dumb, DUMB – two kids against a vampire? And now Dill was paying the price for Peter’s stupidity.
Peter couldn’t afford to be stupid again.
Huffing and puffing, he pedaled fast as he could, his eyes on the night sky, trying to make sure he kept Mercy and Dill in sight. That was why he heard the truck first instead of seeing it.
Putter groan clank, putter putter clank.
Two beams of light cast Peter’s shadow far on the road in front of him.
The ancient truck swerved into the middle of the road and chugged up beside Peter. Through the passenger window, Grandfather was yelling and swiping his hand in a ‘STOP!’ motion.
Peter braked, and so did the truck. When they both came to a halt, Grandfather hopped out and ran to the bike.
“Boy, am I glad to see – ”
“Get off!” Grandfather commanded.
Peter almost fell, he jumped off so quickly. Grandfather grabbed the bike and threw it in the back of his truck. It landed beside an ominous-looking steel box that hadn’t been there at the cemetery. The box was slightly larger than a hotel mini-fridge and was crisscrossed with chains, which appeared to be bolted or fastened to the truck bed.