OV: The Original Vampire (Book #1) (9 page)

Josie is behind Vinnie. She is more curious than scared. Life had dealt her so many blows that some bones wasn’t going to scare her. They walked into the room. The candlelight faintly lit the graying bones. There were old paint cans on metal shelves, a bizarrely placed vintage riding-horse was in the corner, and some old photos thumb-tacked to corkboard.

Josie walked up to the corkboard. There were little brown pieces of paper with captions on them hanging over them. The main caption at the top said: “Welcome to Vanterkroft.” Below that, a smaller one read: “Ghost bastards.” There were three faded photos of people underneath. One name was Laura Higgins. She had curly blonde hair pulled up in a bun and her makeup was heavy; The second one, Derek Norden, was a young man who wore a uniform of some type; The Third, was another young man. His last name was the same as Josie’s.

“Oh my god.”
Josie almost fell over.

“What?
What!?” Vinnie came over.

“I think my dad had a second wife and a double life.”

“What?”

“Right here, Dan
Yearling. He even has my nose.”

“That’s shit.” Vinnie said.

“No, this is really happening. My life is turning upside down and I’m screwed.” She began to cry.

Vinnie hugged her but looked over her shoulder at the other photos. Derek
Norden had Vinnie’s eyes, as they stared at each other, as if Derek was alive and coherent in the picture.

Then, Vinnie had a flashback. He and another boy were spying on Van
Norden and a girl. The girl was young and smiling admirably at Van Norden, who was in his library reading and smoking his pipe. The boys could see Van Norden sitting, and they could see his face from the side, and he was smiling. The girl walked over and bent down in front of him and was no longer visible. Vinnie and the boy thought she had dropped something, but she never came back up.

“This hits close to home for both of us.” Vinnie said, as they suddenly realized they were standing next to skeletons.

“So, these (Josie points to the skeletons) are them?” (Points to the pictures).

“Undeniably.”
Vinnie said.

They headed back upstairs. Josie needed better answers. “Let’s go back to Van Norden. I mean now.” She said.

They prepared a space and began to rock, a sliver of moon shown through the window, as they concentrated on their breathing. There was a deep silence between them, as they both were subjected to a vulnerability of not knowing the known. They held hands while rocking.

Simultaneously, the subconscious movie began for both of them, as they were swinging in a beautiful park. They were around twelve years old, before Josie lost a piece of herself. They watched tugboats out in the bay pull large barges, as they laughed. The laughter was pure innocence, the kind heard at Christmas under the best circumstances.

But, the mood changed, as they quickly grew up and lost interest with swinging in the park.

“Let’s find him.” Josie said.

They walked the empty streets of an unknown town, in an unknown era, until the large building appeared. Josie led the way. She pushed open the heavy door and looked directly at Van
Norden.

“You’re upset Josie?” Van
Norden asked.

“So, my dad played around, huh?”

“He was a Polygamist. Perfectly fine for Vanterkroft.”

“Who was the bitch?” Josie fired.

“A Hairdresser from Miami.”

“Perfect for my dad.
Were they together long?” Josie asked.

“Twenty years.” Van
Norden replied.

“So, they had ‘Dan’ together?”

“Yes, he was fully grown when we took him.” Van Norden said.

“Took him?”

“He was one of the sacrificed. He was too pure for this life, didn’t drink, still a Virgin. Perfect, perfectly wrong for Bud to have that type of offspring, so we off’d him.” Van Norden started to laugh uncontrollably, until he began to choke.

Vinnie spoke up, “So, what about Derek? Did you kill him also?”

“Derek got into Draksblood, thought he was invincible and took on Vanterkroft at an annual meeting.”

“
Draksblood? I created Draksblood.” Vinnie said.

“
Draksblood is in your DNA Vinnie, of course you want to duplicate that. It’s like masturbating to keep your youth.”

“This is bullshit.” Josie walked out, as Vinnie followed. The streets of their subconscious were still empty, as they walked around.

“We can go talk to Bud if you want.” Vinnie said.

“Are you kidding? I don’t want to see him that way.”

“Well, we have to get him out of there.” Vinnie said.

“How do we do that? He can barely speak.”

“It’s just a dark spell, Josie. That can’t be real.” He said. “We need to go back.”

“Great.”

They started to walk back when there was a loud crash. Vinnie and Josie awoke. There was glass all over them.
The window above them was shattered. There was a large hole where something flew through. It was now light outside, as Vinnie looked out the hole.

“Josie! Where are you?” A man with a beard yelled. There were three men out there wearing bright orange hunting caps.

Josie popped her head up, surprised to hear her name.

“There she is!” Another man yelled.

“Josie! It’s Tom. I love you!” He yelled.

“Go to hell!” Josie yelled through the hole in the glass.

“I’m changed baby. I’ve been sober three weeks!” He yelled back.

“You’re dead to me Tom, forever!” She said.

“This is your last chance Josie.” He said.

“Fuck you!” She screamed.

Tom motioned to one of them, as the man grabbed his chainsaw and walked behind the house. A chainsaw could be heard starting. It revved up to a high RPM and stayed there.

“Shit. He’s cutting down a tree!” Vinnie said.

Josie ran to the back of the house and looked out.

“Vinnie!”
She yelled. “It’s a giant Doug Fur, it’s going to come our way! It will flatten the house!” Josie’s voice shook.

“This is your last chance!” Tom yelled. His other buddy lit a
Matov Cocktail and threw it at the front of the house. It exploded and lit a bush on fire.

“To the basement!”
Vinnie yelled. The tree was cracking and splitting up the middle. The top of the tree shook before it was cut enough to become top heavy and lean towards the house. The hundred year relationship between the house and the tree was abolished in a matter of seconds as it began to fall.

Vinnie kicked the basement door down and grabbed Josie’s hand. They made it to the concrete floor of the basement. Then, there was a huge explosion, like a thousand 2x4’s being snapped in half, like toothpicks. The main floor bounced of its cement footing, as a hundred years of debris, splinters, and copper piping fell on top of Vinnie and Josie. They were covered with it. Josie’s eyes were blinded and stinging. Vinnie suffocated under the rubble. He began an internal mantra. He stayed calm and limited his air intake. The normal spirals behind his eyelids
appeared, but there were flashes of light, which became fuzzy and grew in size, until they covered his body with warmth and a powerful presence of something else.

Someone lifted the debris off Josie’s face and blew away the dust from her eyes. She looked over and saw the pile on top of Vinnie moving. There were shadows of human figures dancing around the pile. The ceiling of the basement was now burning through, as the living room could be seen. The entire cabin was burning.

Within an ocean of fire, Vinnie emerged with his friends. His friends had been around the world twice and were at the top of their game, up there with Assassins of the Asian Black Knight, the Russian Elite Snipers, and the Mongolian Imperial Terrorists. They deflected the flames, as they spun Josie into a torrent of ethereal mist and blew her out the chimney. She floated in the sky until the reality of each molecule succumbed to physical boundaries, as she landed safely in the woods a hundred yards away.

Vinnie shook his head clear, as he emerged from the rubble, “Long time no see.” He said to his two friends, as they meditated on enduring the flames and escaping the cabin. The flames flicked
the ceiling, as a maze of fire walls encumbered their escape. Windows shattered from the heat, as Vinnie watched his friends shape-shift into bluish human figures made of ice.

Vinnie had not excelled in this area, so they needed to keep him from burning. They grabbed his arms and whisked him through the flames, while blowing ice cold mist in front of him. When they came outside they saw Tom and his buddies leaning against a truck drinking beer and watching the flames, like a camp fire.

“What the hell?” One of them shouted, when they saw Vinnie being carried out by his friends.

“
Holyshit, how’d they survive?” Another asked, as Tom threw down his beer and walked towards them.

“They’re
gonna die now!” Tom said as he rushed up to them with his hunting knife. Tom’s buddies were slow on the draw, so they were just getting their butts off the truck when Vinnie met Tom in the middle.

“This is for every Josie out there.” Vinnie said, as he grabbed Tom’s wrist, the arm holding the knife, and bent his arm behind him until he heard a pop, like a drumstick being torn off a chicken. The knife dropped, as Vinnie’s friend picked it up. “I always wanted to try this.” He said, as he flicked off his shoe and sock
and placed the knife between his toes. He then jumped into the air, facing Tom, and did a roundhouse kick. The force and speed of the kick connected with Tom’s neck, as the knife sliced completely through his neck, like butter.

Tom’s head bounced off his shoulder before hitting the ground with a melon sound.

“I think I got that one down.” Vinnie’s friend said, as he picked up Tom’s head and looked at it. Tom’s buddies dropped their beers and got into their truck, kicked up a cloud of dirt and vanished behind it, and drove fast down the road.

Vinnie immediately thought about Josie, “Josie!” He yelled towards the forest. The flames of the cabin had lit the giant tree on fire, as everything was burning.

“You guys were great, man.” Vinnie said as he turned around and high fived his friends. “See you at the next tragedy.” He said, smiling. His friends took the case of beer that had fallen from the truck and put the cans in their daypacks, which were a drab green from months of dirt and hiking, gave a peace sign, and ran so fast into the woods, it was hard to track them with the naked eye.

“Josie!” Vinnie yelled.

He walked on a little trail to a large pine tree. There was bare ground underneath the tree, as he saw Josie sitting in a white dress. She had a dandelion behind her hair and her hair flowed with large spiraling curls.

“What happened?” Vinnie asked.

“I took the tail-end of the spell your friends placed on me and made it my own. Don’t I look pretty?” She asked him.

“Yeah, you do.” He said. He realized she had not seen anything, including Tom getting beheaded.

“Let’s get out of here.” He grabbed her hand.

Her beauty was soft and magnetic. There was no longer
a desperation about her. Her eyes were gentle, like her love was full.

As they walked down the trail, Josie almost whispered behind him: “Baby, something really beautiful happened.”

He stopped and turned around and looked at her. Her eyes were like glass emerald.

“I visited my dad in Hell while your friends shot me out of the chimney. I was broken particles in the air, and for a split second I knew I could go anywhere, or do anything. I wanted to see my dad so bad, but I couldn’t alone.

So, I went to my best friend’s house, Daira. I didn’t know where she lived, until I was in the air floating as particle, that I knew everything and found her. Do you know what really amazed me?” She asked, as she was panting on the trail, because they were walking again.

“No, baby,” He said.

“She was twelve again, so sweet and small. She looked up into my eyes and recognized me. She saw the little Josie in me!” She whimpered. Vinnie turned around and hugged her.

She continued, “I grabbed her hand and we went to see my dad. I was so scared he was going to sputter nonsensical words, but when he saw us, he lit up, looked healthier and spoke in complete sentences. He said he loved me forever, that I was a perfect angel. He never wanted to hurt
me; that it was demon alcohol; that it was a vicious pecking-order handed down through the generations. Most fathers hit their sons, but he didn’t have a son, so he abused me in other ways.” She took a deep breath and wiped away a tear.

“That’s not ri
ght that he abused you in any way.” Vinnie said, as they huffed up the hill again.

“He’s just a confused little boy inside, who got abused by his dad, and his dad was abused by his father.” She breathed out.
“It’s a moral virus within the family.” She added.