City of Whispers (City of Whispers #1) (2 page)

3

It was mid-April when I killed the intruders. Most days were still a little
chilly. Having a broken window and a vampire corpse didn’t help with the
comfort level in the apartment.

Beth and I finished boarding up the windows by the
fire-escape as best we could. We weren’t able to board the windows all the way
so we pulled my blackout curtains closed so no one could see there were two
20-something girls alone in the apartment. Vampire corpse or not, we probably
still would have presented a too-tempting target. Let them think the residents
were dead, or a team of bad-ass vampire slayers.

The stench got really bad really fast. When they were
unfortunate enough to find themselves dragged outside during the day, the living
vampires burned fairly quickly in the sun. It usually took a little under five
minutes. This probably didn’t seem very quick to the vampire who was burning,
but compared to a vampire corpse, it was quick. For some reason, the corpses
tended to take longer.

My building was in the shade, and covering our vampire
scarecrow with my shower curtain lining helped preserve her, but she still
smoldered. Though covered from the top, her body still had the desired effect
because anyone below could look up and see a dead vampire body and her head
looking down at them through the grating of the fire escape.

Protection though she may have been, the smell of
singed flesh was nauseating. Before the outbreak, I had stocked up on snack
foods for book club. Beth and I considered ourselves fortunate that we had
plenty of food, but unfortunate that the food was mostly stale crackers and old
cheese. Our meals weren’t terribly appetizing in the first place, but eating
them with the smell of twice-dead, smoldering, decapitated vampire corpse
permeating the living room made the experience infinitely worse.

Beth and I began to call her “Stella.”

At first we were angry.

“What a crazy old hag. Who goes out that early
anyway?” Beth would say.

“She’s so ugly you’d think she’d wait to go out when
everyone was drunk. What sober man would want to pick her up with that hideous
dress and that nasty gash in her neck?”

“That’s why she had to go for fatty out there.”

Then, after a few days, when our plan appeared to be
working and Stella was indeed keeping marauders and other vampires away, we
started to take to her more kindly.

“Poor Stella. She probably just got a divorce. It was
probably her asshole husband that tore her neck up like that.”

“Can’t blame her for getting out of there and wanting
to move on.”

“And then two younger ladies come along and ruin all
her fun.”

Beth and I always slept in shifts, but it was
difficult. As scared as I was, lying down and purposefully going to sleep
wasn’t easy. Even knowing that Beth was up keeping watch barely helped.

Every single noise brought me wide awake. Sometimes
I’d whisper to Beth, “Did you hear that? Are you sure it wasn’t at the window?
Are you sure there wasn’t just a scratching sound at the door?” She’d whisper back
that I was being paranoid…as if she didn’t do the same thing when it was her
turn to sleep.

By the time it was my turn to sit up, I was exhausted
from the effort spent trying to sleep. There was nothing to do but sit up in
the dark, clutching my hatchet and a stake.

There was no T.V., no radio, and despite the blackout
curtains, I didn’t feel very comfortable lighting candles to read by. So mostly
I just sat there, trying to remember song lyrics, my favorite stories, or just
counting the different noises I heard.

I’m not from New
York. I’m from Virginia.
It actually gets dark in Virginia
and thus, I always found darkness to be necessary precedent to falling asleep.

When I moved to New
York, I complained to no end about the noise and the
bright lights—hence the blackout curtains in my apartment.

After we lost power, I longed for the bright lights to
come in through the little crack above the stress bar in my window. But the
city was pitch dark except for the occasional fires in the street and some
fools who ran around with flashlights. I don’t know if they thought they would
save the city from the vampires or they were being sneaky by looting at night,
when no sensible people would dare leave whatever safe haven they had found for
themselves.

Sometimes, despite my terror, I would start to drift
off, and then a scream or something breaking in the street would wake me.
Sometimes, Beth imagined she heard something and woke me asking if I was still
awake, and if I had heard something at the door.

“Of course I’m awake and I didn’t hear anything, and
if I did that was just the building settling. Go back to sleep.”

I heard noises inside my building too. I heard people
yelling, running, and loud crashing sounds.

One night, while I was up sitting watch, I heard a
woman’s blood-curdling scream come from the apartment next door. I had almost
gotten used to screams, but this being right next door made me bolt upright out
of my exhausted stupor.

Beth was beside me in about half a second with a
handful of stakes. I couldn’t move.

“Tell me I just had a nightmare,” Beth whispered.

“
Shhhh
, no, it was next
door.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes I’m sure, be quiet.”

After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably
only a few seconds, the screaming came again. This time it was more drawn out.
Whoever, or whatever was in the apartment must have caught her.

There was a big racket, so maybe the woman was
fighting it off, but I couldn’t tell if she was winning or losing.

“Do you know her?” Beth whispered.

“No,” I hissed back. “Now
shut up
.”

Neither one of us suggested going over to help.
Neither one of us made a move toward the door. The only plan I was hatching was
how to keep Beth from doing something stupid in case she felt inclined to go
help. I didn’t have to worry. She was probably having the same thoughts I was,
though we never spoke about it.

I just kept praying that whatever it was would go
ahead and finish the woman off and put her out of her misery.
As I had told Beth, I didn’t know the woman next door.
In fact, I didn’t know a single person in my building except the super. I
suspected he was long dead anyway since the heat was off. He was a nice old man
and he kept the boiler lit well into the warmer spring months when it was
completely unnecessary. I was sure he would have done so even in the middle of
a vampire epidemic, unless he had been killed.

The commotion next door didn’t last very long, for
which I was grateful. But, it didn’t bring any feeling of relief. The silence
afterward was worse than the screams.

Not only was the woman’s door next to mine in the
hallway, but her window shared the fire escape with my busted living room
window. If whatever it was came out onto the fire escape instead of taking the
door, we would have nothing between us but the blackout curtains, some flimsy boards,
and Stella. Even though Stella was smelling quite putrid at that point, I
preferred the solid door with the three deadbolts as my first line of defense.

Beth and I crouched in my living room, not moving,
barely breathing. I felt that if I moved the smallest bit, the floor would
creak and give us away.

We still didn’t know what was in the apartment next
door: human or vampire. Neither of us had a watch so I don’t know how long we
sat there. It felt like a million years.

I started to wonder why the sun hadn’t come up. My
back was aching and my hands were starting to cramp from clutching my stake so
tightly.

Finally, I thought I heard a shuffling noise next
door. Then I heard some floorboards creak as whatever it was started moving. It
sounded like it was moving toward the door.

I heard the door open and almost sighed with relief,
but kept quiet. Then I thought I heard it sniffing around. The door closed, but
instead of hearing footsteps go down the hall to the stairwell, I heard steps
go back into the living room.

I felt tears in my eyes, not out of sadness for the
woman next door, but out of complete terror. I tried to calm myself. It was the
middle of the night so it was probably a vampire, and it sounded like a loner.

We had dealt with a vampire before, Stella could
attest to that. As far as I knew vampires didn’t have guns or other weapons and
that gave us a fair chance.

That was an odd moment that still stands out in my
mind. That was when I realized I felt more comfortable believing there was a
vampire next door rather than a person.

The thing walked over toward the window and I heard
the fire escape creak. Why hadn’t I heard the window open, or glass break? Had
the window already been broken? Surely my neighbor hadn’t been stupid enough to
leave the window open. Or maybe she hadn’t been my neighbor at all, maybe she
crawled in from the escape. None of that mattered now. All that mattered was
the creaking fire escape.

I knew that whatever was lurking out there, it had to
go past our window to get to the ladder and climb down. I held my breath and waited.
I felt like I would explode. Part of me wanted it to climb in so we could jump
it and let out all the tension and fear that had been churning inside of us as
we sat there listening to it tear into the woman next door.

The fire escape creaked, then was still. It sounded
like it stopped. Again, I heard the sniffing noise. I didn’t know if it was
investigating Stella or trying to figure out whether fresh blood was waiting
inside. After a few minutes it sounded as if it was climbing down the ladder.

I can’t describe how I felt: relieved it had moved
past us and yet slightly disappointed it hadn’t come inside so we could kill
it. Then at least we would know it was gone for good. What if I had been mistaken
about the noises I heard? Maybe it was still out there. Maybe it knew we were
inside and would come back with more of its kind.

Neither Beth nor I slept for the rest of the night. We
stayed in the foyer where we could watch both the fire escape and the door. We
could also see the hallway that led to the bedroom and kitchen.

I had visions of those things scaling five stories of
brick wall and climbing in through the kitchen or bedroom windows. It seems a
little silly now, but back then I had no idea what they were capable of. I was
going off what I had seen in movies.

I even got the crazy idea to sprinkle some old Papa
John’s garlic sauce from the now defunct fridge, onto the windowsill where
Stella was...just in case the rotting flesh didn’t reek enough.

The one myth we had clearly busted by then was that of
the invitation. Stella and the creature next door, if it had indeed been a
vampire, had proven that those things weren’t going to wait for an invitation.
They would come in and help themselves to a late night snack in someone’s
living room whether or not they were invited.

4

Beth and I didn’t say a word for the rest of the night. As the sun began to
rise, I began to relax.

“It was a vampire I think,” I said.

Beth looked concerned, “What do you mean?”

“I just mean I think a person would have at least
tried some door handles or tried to poke through the boards on the window. If
he’s going to go to all the trouble to climb up five floors, a vampire corpse
might not completely protect against his curiosity. A vampire might have eaten
his fill and not cared so much.”

“Okay, sure, I guess.” Beth looked unconvinced, but we
didn’t talk about it again.

After the incident next door, we didn’t hear any more
noises in our building. The outside was much quieter as well. After three days
of silence, Beth and I decided we had to leave the apartment and search for
food and water.

We still had running water, but if the water lines
broke or our water source was contaminated, we wouldn’t last more than a few
days. With that in mind, I wanted to stay prepared. It also wouldn’t hurt to
find some supplies to board up the smashed window.

We watched the sky all morning to make sure it was
sunny with little chance of rain. I had never seen any vampires out during the
day, but I was a little worried that they might come out if it was cloudy
enough. We also kept an eye on the street below in case we saw any unsavory New
Yorkers looking for trouble.

We didn’t see anyone, so we left the apartment in the
late morning. I felt more comfortable using the fire escape because I didn’t
know what might be lurking in the hallways and stairwell of my building. We
hadn’t been able to completely board up the window in the first place, and the
boards that were on the window were easy to remove. I cringed when I thought
about how easy it would be for an intruder to get through our flimsy defense
system. We used the window next to Stella and I almost vomited from the stench
when I crawled by her.

“Maybe we should shop for a new vampire corpse while
we’re out...something fresher,” I suggested.

Beth didn’t laugh.

We each wore a backpack with a bottle of water and
some stakes, just in case. We still couldn’t be one hundred percent sure there
were no vampires out in the day. In addition, Beth carried the pepper spray and
I carried a knife in case we encountered any people.

It was strange being out on the street after being
locked up for so long. Midtown was always hustle and bustle, and once the panic
happened, everything got even worse. Now I could hear the birds. For a moment I
thought I heard a helicopter in the distance, but I couldn’t see very far north
or south because of the buildings.

The first place we went was the Duane Reade down the
street. Fortunately, this one had windows that allowed in a decent amount of
sunlight. The place had already been looted, but we managed to score a few
bottles of water and some pretzels. I could foresee our biggest problems would
be finding fresh food and weapons. We needed hardware to reinforce the apartment,
and wood and tools to make sharp stakes. After our first adventure staking a
vampire, I knew it wasn’t as easy as it looked in the movies, and a sharper
stake would be better.

There was a Home Depot a little over thirty blocks
north and all the way on the East Side, but I
also knew that two of its levels were underground. That meant it would probably
be pitch dark inside, and it could be full of vampires, looters, or who knew
what else. Even if we were able to get in and out safely, how then would we
bring everything back thirty-plus blocks? Maybe our best bet was to raid nearby
construction areas.

There was a bank that had been under construction two
blocks away from my apartment. So we took our pretzels and water home and then
headed to the bank. The bank’s windows were covered in paper—maybe so the
people outside couldn’t see the unsightly mess inside.

The door was open a crack. “People have probably
already been inside,” I said.

“It could have been vampires,” Beth said. “They could
still be in there…in the dark.”

Beth and I stood in silence for a few moments watching
the building.

“Is it worth the risk?” I asked.

“Why don’t we just break the window?” Beth suggested.
“That should let in a lot of sunlight. If there are vampires in there they’ll burn
or at least have to run into a darker part of the building.”

I nodded. “Not a bad idea.”

We went back to the apartment again and got the
baseball bat. Beth used to play softball in Central Park
during the summer so I decided to let her have the first go, while I stood back
holding a stake.

She took her stance, swung, and...not much happened. A
spider web of cracks spread from the point of impact, but from the pained look
on Beth’s face, I thought she likely hurt her shoulders more than the window.

“Any point trying again?” I asked.

“I don’t think it’ll break with a baseball bat.”

“No shit,” a male voice said.

I spun around, stake ready, and saw three men in their
late twenties or early thirties standing in the middle of the street. They all
looked like they could use a hair-cut and a shave…not that I could pass
judgment. With no hairdryer or straightener, I didn’t know what to do with my
hair besides put it back in a pony tail.

One was about my height with dark skin. He looked
Latino. The other two were taller. One was light-skinned with reddish hair and
wore a spiky dog collar. Seriously. A dog collar. The other was tan with dark
hair. I thought he could be my type if he would clean himself up a little.

“Don’t you see the Wells Fargo sign? You think you can
just break a bank window with a baseball bat?” the guy in the dog collar
scoffed.

“Sorry, I’ve never tried to break into a bank before,”
Beth replied.

“Well no need to get angry, but I mean common sense—”

“Are you looters?” I interrupted. I didn’t know these
guys and I didn’t trust them. I wanted to get away.

Dog-collar man raised his eyebrows. “You’re the ones
trying to break into the bank.”

I felt my face grow warm. I tried to think of
something to say about how this was different than looting, but I decided not
to let the conversation go any further.

“Look I don’t know what you guys want, but you aren’t
getting it from us. So please just move along.”

“Relax.” The Latino man stepped forward, and Beth and
I both stiffened. He put both hands up. “I’m Paulo, this guy is my roommate
James. He has a big mouth, but he’s a good guy.” Dog-collar man, a/k/a James,
rolled his eyes. Paulo continued, “This quiet guy is Scott. We just met him
yesterday looting—or shopping rather—at Trader Joe’s.”

Scott, the one with the dark hair and the tan, gave us
a little wave. Then there was an awkward silence. Scott finally spoke, “If you
want us to go away we’ll go away, but a group of five is better than three, and
it’s certainly better than two.”

Beth bristled. “We’ve handled ourselves fine so far.”

“So do you want us to go?” Paulo asked.

“What did you do in the real world for work?” I asked
instead of answering.

James responded, “Paulo was in school for journalism
and I was an actor and—”

“James was a waiter,” Paulo interrupted.

“Screw you Paulo, I was on
Law and Order
.”

“Everyone in New
York has been on
Law and Order
,” Paulo
retorted. I could tell at least they were honest about being roommates. They
bickered like a married couple, and I was beginning to like them despite my
initial misgivings.

“He may have a point,” I said. “But it’s still pretty
cool.”

“Thanks,” James said.

“And you?” I turned to Scott. “What’s your deal?”

“I was in banking,” he said it with enough chagrin
that I believed him.

“Well now we know we can’t trust you,” I said in
mock-horror.

“Sorry.”

“Oh stop,” Beth interrupted, “I’m Beth and this is
Ailis. We were both lawyers, we can’t talk down about anyone’s career choices.”

“Ailis?” Scott asked.

“My great-grandmother was Irish. It gets a little butchered
sometimes with the way it’s written.”

“I’ll try to get it right.” He smiled. “But what are
you doing trying to break into a bank?”

James jumped in. “You know Saks is having a sale and
everything is free!”

“Very clever,” Beth said. “We wanted construction
supplies to reinforce our...
Ailis’s
apartment.”

“Well if you trust us, we can help,” Paulo offered. “I
don’t think you’re going to break that window, so we’ll have to take the door.
James can go first since he has his ingenious dog collar.”

“Bite me,” James said.

“You’re going to have to start being civilized now
that there are ladies around,” Paulo shot back.

“Can we just get on with it?” Scott started walking
toward the door. “I’d rather deal with the vampires than you two and I’ve only
known you guys a day.”

Paulo and James became serious as we gathered around
the door. “Now,” Scott began, “I think the best thing to do is to go in as a
group facing all directions so we can head anything off. We’ll head straight
for the window and one of the girls...”

“Girls?” I asked.

“Sorry, one of the
ladies
can pull the paper
off the window while the rest of us watch her back. Once the place has some
sunlight we’ll be okay as long as we watch out for looters—the bad kind I
mean.”

“Now listen,” I said, “Beth and I killed a man and
then the vampire that came to drink his blood and then we left the vampire on
our fire escape for a week. We don’t need coddling.”

Silence.

“You left it there?” James finally asked.

“I’ll pull the paper off the window,” Beth volunteered.

“Okay well that’s settled,” Scott continued. “James,
it’ll be just like the police on
Law and Order.
”

Scott set the plan and organized us in only a few
minutes. My stomach churned at the thought of going into the dark bank, but I
had to admit I felt better having the three men there.

Scott pulled open the door and went right, stake in
one hand, flashlight in the other. James was right behind him and headed left
toward the window. Paulo followed and moved straight ahead. They formed a
triangle and Beth moved into the center. I followed so that we made a circle
around her.

The place looked eerie with the flashlights scanning
the walls and darting into corners, but I didn’t see anything.

I noticed a large paint can sitting near the door.
“Watch my back,” I told Beth. I bent down and moved the paint can to prop the
door open as wide as it would go. That gave us a streak of dim sunlight.

We all moved quickly toward the window where we
surrounded Beth while she began tearing the paper down, filling the room with
more and more sunlight, but I noticed it wasn’t as bright as when we had gone
out. It must have been very late in the afternoon by that time.

When Beth was finished, the place was fairly well lit.
There was an abundance of tools, but unfortunately some of the best ones were
power tools, which were now worthless.

Most importantly, however, there were nails and boards
that were perfect for fortifying our windows, and pieces of scrap wood and
furniture that would make great stakes. What I really would have liked was to
find something to sharpen my hatchet, but I had no such luck.

We found a wheelbarrow and a couple of rolling plastic
trash bins and filled them with anything that we thought we could use that
night. We could come back the next day.

The last thing I grabbed on my way out was a large
plastic sheet as I reminded everyone we still had a rotting vampire corpse on
our fire escape.

“Where do you live?” Paulo asked.

“We’re only a few blocks from here,” Beth said.

“We live in

We left the bank and rolled our supplies back to my
building.

“Jesus H. Christ, you weren’t kidding,” James muttered
when he saw Stella peering down at him from the fire escape.

I had had time to get used to her, and I still found
her pretty disgusting.

“Yeah that’s why I brought the sheet,” I said. “She’s
been smoldering for days and just pushing her off the fire escape probably
won’t be easy...but that’s what you guys are here for!”

“Huh uh.” Paulo shook his head.

“Not for that,” Scott said. “That’s your own mess.”

I had to hand it to them. Despite their obvious
disgust, they helped us move Stella off the fire escape. She was in rough shape
and I assumed that once she lay out in the street uncovered the next day the
sunlight would finish her off.