Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner (39 page)

Anna sobbed, then she looked up at the
ceiling and thought. She stepped back again. “I realized what it
was trying to do last night. I realized that it had been in my head
for a long time. I noticed things I hadn’t before. Things I should
have easily seen. I saw that all those people had died when you
left. I got in the car and drove here.”

Sully wanted to believe her, but could
not. She was right. As a horror writer, she should have been
attuned to horror in her environment. There was no way it could
have gotten past her. It would have never been able to get in
Anna’s mind. Not into the Anna he had known.

“You had me read that story, Anna. You
put those snakes in my head. You put a lot of things in my head,
didn’t you?”

Anna came at him, two steps, and Sully
raised the shotgun all the way, and trained it on her. She stopped
again.

A part of him couldn’t believe it. He
was now pointing a gun at what was, a few days ago, his favorite
woman in the world. And it was no pellet gun he was holding. It
wasn’t a rifle either. At this distance, squeezing the trigger of
the shotgun would practically cut her in half.

“No, Sully,” was all she said as she
stood there. Sully thought it was because he had her. He had
figured her out and now she knew it. There was one last
question.

“What’s in the attic?” Sully
asked.

Anna’s eyes grew big.

That was about the time Sully noticed
that the dogs were close.

Anna’s big eyes scanned the ceiling.
On her face was a terrified thoughtfulness. Then she seemed to find
inside of her head what she was looking for. “Oh my God, Sully! We
have to get out of here!”

Sully realized that he would not be
able to shoot her. Not unless she rushed him. Even then, if she
attacked, he wasn’t sure he could do it. “No, Anna,” he said. “Just
you. You have to get out of here. As you know, I have many lives
inside. You won’t be able to kill me, but I’ll eventually be able
to kill you. So you better just go.”

“Many,” Anna sputtered. “Many. . .
Many. . . Many lives.” Her eyes glossed over. “My God, Sully. If
I’d only knew. If I’d only knew.”

“You did know!” Sully shouted. “Now
go!”

Anna didn’t seem to hear him.
Suddenly, she was looking in his direction, but not at him. She was
looking past him.

“Sully,” she said, her voice shaking.
Her body began to shiver. “Sully,” she said again.

“What?” Sully snapped.

“It’s behind you.”

Sully’s mind went to the closet. His
mind went to the open flap door. He thought of the snakes. But it
was a trick. He was sure. She wanted him to turn around, so she
could rush him.

Sully heard the glass door behind him
creak open. He turned around.

#

There wasn’t the sound of Anna’s feet
rushing at him from behind. And he didn’t see the snakes on his
daughter’s bedroom floor. What he saw when he looked down were the
white feet of the monster.

Those feet stayed motionless as Sully
slowly moved his head up to look at the body of the beast. It was
small, about Anna’s size. It wore a black gown that covered its
body from its neck to its ankles. On its hands were black nylon
gloves. Its straight black hair stretched down past its waist. Its
face was that of a woman, only as white as paper. Its eyes were as
white as its skin. Its lips, which were curled into an angry grin,
were black.

It took a few seconds for the shock to
wear off, as the monster stood there quiet and motionless in front
of him. When Sully was finally able to move, he stepped backward to
where Anna stood. He lifted the shotgun and pulled the trigger.
Glass from the closed door exploded in the deafening blast. The
gown she was wearing was disturbed by the pressure of the pellets.
But the monster didn’t even flinch.

Sully was frozen again. But Anna ran
from the room. He was eternally glad that the beast didn’t pursue
her. Because he had no idea what he would have done then. What
could he have possibly done to protect Anna from this beast that
didn’t die when it was shot at pointblank range?

Anna wasn't gone long. She reappeared,
rushing through the doorway and at the beast, a long knife in her
hand.

It all happened very fast. Anna
screamed like some ancient female warrior as she brought the knife
down. But the monster caught her wrist. Anna brought her empty fist
around. The monster let that ineffective fist hit her. Then she let
go of Anna long enough to adjust her grip. She lifted Anna by the
arms into the air.

Sully moved forward, still not knowing
what he could possibly do, just wanting to save Anna, somehow. When
he saw the monster thrust Anna, he actually made a motion to catch
her, but she was moving too fast. Anna hit hard against the wall in
the corner of the room, then fell to the floor.

Sully had never felt rage like he did
now. Out of control, he didn’t think to try and shoot the monster
again. No, he wanted to beat the bitch to death with his bare
hands. He dropped the gun to the floor and rushed her. She caught
him, with one powerful hand, by the throat, and held him in place.
Choking, Sully tried to pull away, but could not. The monster
opened its mouth and showed him long, sharp incisors. Suddenly,
Sully knew what it was and what it was going to do. The sand
monster was a female vampire. And she wanted his blood.

The vampire pulled him to her and sunk
its teeth into his neck. At first there was a piercing pain. Then
Sully felt like every drop of blood in his body came rushing to the
holes where she sucked on him. Then, after just a few seconds, he
felt nothing at all.

#

The coma men were there, but only for
a little while. He felt himself ripped away from them. Pulled back.
Consciousness came in a flood, and then Sully knew what it was like
to be held alive in a body that was supposed to be dead. Inside him
was a physical protest, muscles and organs calling out for blood
that was not there to give. With each breath there was sharp pain,
what felt like razors in his veins, a pain he had felt before, but
that he now realized was simply a void.

He could not move at all, other than
his meager breath, but he could see clearly. He was in the center
of the study on his back. In the corner, where the vampire had
thrown her, Anna was curled up. She had hit the wall hard, and now
she was still. She was dead. And for what? Trying to save him.
Trying to save the man who had not trusted her, the man who had
claimed to love her, only to threaten her with a gun. Anna had to
have known the knife would fail. She had seen the gun do nothing.
Yet, for him, in her desperation, she had done all she could. Sully
now felt much more than physical pain.

The vampire was a few feet from Anna
but not looking at her. She was looking at him, smiling, and Sully
knew that she had brought him to this unnatural state. He was
dying, but she had restored his vision.

He could still make out the sounds of
barking outside.

Against the wall, right by where the
vampire stood, was Sully’s large hanging mirror. With a motion of
her hand, the vampire made an image appear in that
mirror.

And there was Monica, asleep in bed at
her mom’s house, just as Sully thought she actually was.

Sully thought it a bargain. He tried
to speak but could not. He wanted to accept that
bargain.

Take me anytime you want.
And I’ll stay here and never travel again. I’ll always be here for
you to feed on. Don’t take her.

But it didn’t matter. The vampire
spoke to his thoughts. “Too late,” she said, in a voice that was
female, but still horrid, wicked. “You could have let it be. But
now it’s too late. I can never kill you, but I can make you wish
you were dead. I’m leaving, and I will feed on your child
tomorrow.”

The vampire turned to Anna. “But
first.”

Sully realized that Anna was still
alive, and the vampire would soon take that. Then the next night,
the vampire would take all that was left. There was nothing he
could do.

Why hadn’t he seen this before? He
could have sent them both away. He would have lived out his
existence alone. But at least they would have been safe. It didn’t
matter now. There was nothing he could do.

Sully became acutely aware that the
dogs had stopped barking. And it had been sudden. It had been when
they reached the apex of sound in his low sensory world. It had
been when they were right outside, he thought.

He thought about the nights before.
Had they come this close? Why hadn’t his neighbors said anything?
Why did Anna not seem to notice them earlier? Why did the vampire
not seem to notice them? Was it a message meant for him?

He remembered the nights he had come
to and mistaken the creature for Anna. Then he had not known. Now
he knew. The vampire had been feeding on him. That was why he had
been so weak. But on one of those nights, he had been able to
speak.

He didn’t know how long the vampire
would wait before it would suck the life from Anna. He went into
the pain. He went hard into the pain. He stored it up. It felt as
if little razorblades were cutting him on the inside. When he
thought it could get no worse, and when he thought he could sense
himself enough, Sully let out his cry.

“Help us!”

The vampire, still standing by the
mirror, smiled down on him, a little shocked. It moved right up to
his prone body.

“No one can help you.”

The vampire laughed, hard and wicked,
for some time. Then it stopped, when someone came in the back
door.

#

Sully heard her before he saw her. It
was the voice of a child.

“They take, not stay,” she sang. “They
take, never stay.”

The vampire watched the door and
waited.

The girl that appeared in the doorway
could have been in one of Sully’s classes. She was small and
fragile looking. Her brown hair was in pigtails. She walked into
the room fearlessly.

“They take, not stay,” she sang. “They
take, never stay.”

Sully wanted to yell at the girl that
she should run and get help. He wanted to tell her not to do what
she was doing. But he couldn’t say anymore, and the girl walked
right up to the vampire.

With a sweeping blow, the vampire
caused the girl’s head to spin backwards. The girl fell dead to the
floor.

Reflexively, Sully tried to get up. He
could not. He could feel nothing now. He would soon be
dead.

The vampire turned back to him. Again,
it laughed, confidently, wickedly, like the monster that it was.
She didn’t seem to notice the girl stand up behind her.

“They take, not stay,” she sang. “They
take, never stay.”

The vampire swept around to look at
the girl, who seemed as good as new. The vampire backed away,
nearly stepping on Sully.

That’s when the first dog appeared in
the doorway.

And it wasn’t one of his neighbors’
dogs. It was too big. Its hair was speckled black and gray. The dog
had not come from around here. It was a wolf. Its eyes were pale
white, its expression emotionless. Sully was fairly certain he was
looking at a zombie.

“They take, not stay!” the girl
shouted. “They take, never stay!”

She motioned with her hand, and the
dead wolf rushed the vampire.

The vampire behind him, Sully didn't
see what it did. The dog didn't make a sound. It just flew in front
of him, landing lifeless on the floor, dark blood coming from its
mouth.

The girl’s eyes rolled back in her
head. Something seemed to come from her. It was like nothing Sully
had seen before. It was just a disturbance of the light, a
distortion in the room. It went from the girl to the dead
wolf.

The wolf shook, then stood up again.
The girl’s eyes went back to normal. Two more wolves appeared at
the door, then a fourth. They came up beside the other.

With a motion of the girl’s hand, they
attacked. Sully heard the muffled sound of the vampire crying out
as she fought the beasts. He saw the wolves flying about the room.
He saw others come into the room to join the brawl.

He watched all of this the best he
could, until the girl approached him. She looked down upon him. In
a gentle voice that he heard clearly, she said, “My
Sully.”

She moved a hand way above him. He
felt life lift from his body.

Blackness.

#

Sully looked down. Below, he saw
himself. He was floating away. It was as he had heard in the
stories of death. He went to the corner of the room.

The girl raised a hand, and with some
force, what felt like magnetism, she held him there. When she moved
her hand away, the force remained.

Now Anna was directly below him. She
was coming to, blinking her eyes, moving her head a little. Sully
feared for her, but just a little. The girl seemed to have things
under control.

Across the room, several wolves had
latched onto the vampire. She screamed and tried to fight, but her
movement was restricted. The wolves dragged her to the floor and
with their jaws held her there.