Damon (29 page)

Chester leaned forward, breathing heavily, and shook his head as if he couldn’t go on.

“It turned into a man,” Bella said. “Right before our eyes. We thought we’d killed a monster but we’d killed a man instead.”

“We thought we’d all gone crazy,” Chester said.

Bella nodded and wiped at her eyes with her sleeve.

“We hid his body,” Chester said, “and then went back home and tried to figure a way out. One night a storm blew through and we made up our minds. Corky and Liz had kids, babies. We had to think of them. We set the houses on fire, left everything behind, and ran as fast as we could to get out of the state.”

Chester sat back, looking as if he’d just run a mile. “We went to Knoxville, changed our names, and started over. We thought we could hide in the city. But, one day Harvey saw someone we knew. We were still too close to home. We packed up and moved again and tried to put it behind us.”

“But it wouldn’t let us be,” Bella said. “Harvey and Beverly had been bitten and started to change. It didn’t happen overnight, it took a few years, but they got worse and worse. Finally, they got so bad they couldn’t take it anymore.”

“And they killed themselves?” I asked. I’d heard the stories, but I’d never known either of them, and I wanted every detail.

“They turned into the red beast,” Damon said, as if he already knew the story. “They turned into vampires.”

Bella and Chester both shook their heads. “No, they didn’t,” Chester said. “They lost their senses. That’s all.” He nodded to me. “Like your mother.” He glanced at Damon. “Like your dad.”

“And now like us,” I decided.

Neither Bella nor Chester objected.

“But what about Cynthia?” I asked. “She’s… well, I don’t want to say what she is, but she’s not crazy.”

“Little Cynthia was born before the incident,” Chester said. “Along with Corky’s first boy. It was Beverly and Harvey’s kids, the ones who were born after the attack. They were the ones with problems. Both your parents. It was like the beast had poisoned their blood. Harvey and Beverly’s blood. The madness just kept getting passed on. It wouldn’t die.”

“The first two didn’t make it,” Bella said, her bottom lip quivering. “Your Gram’s baby, Sidney, lasted only a week or two. Beverly and Elliot’s first baby son was the same way. Died in a few days. We said no more children. We all decided. No more. But, then Little Ricky was born.” She leaned over to give me a pat on the arm. “And then your mama. They lived. We held our breath for years, wondering what would happen.”

“And the worst happened,” I concluded. “They both went crazy.”

Bella and Chester both stared at the floor.

“And now it’s happening to us,” I said.

“See?” Damon said, smiling slightly. “I knew it wasn’t me. Not this time.”

“But it is you,” I told him. “It’s both of us. We’re going crazy, just like the others. We have poisoned blood. There’s no escape.”

He sat forward. “Yes, there is. In the cave. All we have to do is find the vampire.”

“It’s dead, son,” Chester said. “Weren’t you listening?”

Damon laughed as if he couldn’t believe the idiocy of the rest of us. “You can’t kill a vampire by cutting off its hand. You knocked it unconscious, is all. It’s still out there. All we have to do is find it.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, so I decided to change the subject. “Why did you keep the hand?”

“Elliot needed to see, to know,” Chester said. “He wanted to see if it would change back, if it would turn red and grow claws. But it didn’t. It turned to a skeleton like a real hand. And then we all did begin to wonder if we’d dreamed it up.”

Damon stood and went to the desk. We all watched to see what he planned to do. He came back with a pad and pen and handed them to Chester. “Just write out the directions and I’ll take care of the rest.”

Chester took the notepad and after a moment of hesitation, the pen, but he didn’t start writing. “There were ten of us that day. Five grown men in our prime. One of us died. The rest of us barely got out alive. If that thing, or one like it, is still there, you’ll find yourself in a world of trouble. I can’t be a part of that.” He nodded to me. “I can’t let you take Maggie into a situation like that.”

“Then I’ll go alone,” Damon said, nodding to the notepad. “It won’t attack me. I’m its child. I’ll find the cure. I’ll find our home. Just tell me where to go.”

Chester continued to sit there, thinking. Bella left to make coffee, and probably compose herself in a moment of quiet.

“My dad is as good as dead,” Damon said. “So is Maggie’s mom. If I can save us, if I can save Maggie, I have to try.” He turned to look at me. “That’s not crazy. Is it?”

I shook my head, but I didn’t want him going off alone to find beasts in caves and get himself killed. “I’ll go with you.”

“No, you don’t,” Chester said. He pointed the pen at Damon then began writing. “You go alone and you don’t come back unless you know you’ve found some kind of ‘cure.’ You don’t come back here and hurt her again. I won’t stand for that.”

I appreciated Chester’s concern for me, but he didn’t seem to realize that I loved Damon and if Damon had to die, then I had to die, too.

Damon waited, bobbing, until Chester handed over the directions. He folded the paper into his pocket and came over to me. He knelt down and held my hands. “You have to stay here. I can’t think straight when you’re with me. I lose sight of the mission.” He kissed my one hand, and then the other. “You’re a distraction and we’re running out of time. I’m running out of time. You still have a chance.”

“Not without you,” I whispered, leaning forward to speak privately.

He rested his forehead against mine. “I’ll be back soon. We’re connected. If you get lonely, just talk to me in your mind, and I’ll hear you.”

I patted my pockets for the stolen cell phone but we’d lost it somewhere. “We need cell phones. I need to hear your voice, every day.”

“They won’t work in the caves. Just talk to me in your mind and I’ll hear you. It’s safer that way. No one can listen in.”

He stood and I held onto his hand as long as I could while he backed away. “I’ll be back,” he said, nodding to reassure me. “With a cure. I promise.”

“Be careful. Come back.”

He nodded and walked away.

I’d managed to sit until he’d reached and opened the door, then I couldn’t stand it. He was leaving. Without me.

When he pushed open the screen door and paused to look back at me, and I saw the doubt in his eyes, the realization he might never return, I bolted out of my chair, determined to go with him. But, Chester blocked my path, and Damon held up a hand.

“A week, tops,” he said. “Just let me go and do this, while I still can. For you.”

Bella was suddenly there beside me. “You come with me,” she directed, turning me toward the hall. “It’ll all be all right.”

Damon left and I walked with Bella out of the room – needing whatever soft place she would offer me. I needed to bury myself under the covers where no one could hear me cry.

Bella shut the door to the guestroom, but I could hear Damon’s voice, inside my head, louder than any voice I’d ever heard, screaming my name.

“Is it all really happening?” I asked her. “Or am I making it all up in my mind? Vampires, Damon, even you right now?”

Bella sat me on the bed and bent to check me over. She brushed my hair from my face. “It’s best not to think about it.”

“Did you find the hidden treasure, at least?” I asked. I could feel a strange giddiness building inside me, a giddiness made up of pure, overpowering misery.

She smiled sadly. “Oh, honey, there was never any hidden treasure. We all knew that. It was just an excuse to make up fun and go exploring.”

I nodded and tried to close my eyes, but they popped back open.

“Do you need a sleeping pill, hon?”

Sleeping pills?
Now they were trying to dope me up like Mama, to get me out of the way. “No. No pills.”

“It’ll help you sleep. You’re not fully well yet.”

I turned over on the bed and covered my head with a pillow. I didn’t want to sleep. Ever again.

I was afraid I would wake up and not know which world was mine.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

A wonderful warmth awoke me and I reached out to pull Damon’s body closer… but my arms fell on air and the room turned cold. I sat up and felt the pillows and mattress in the dark, then fell back, stunned. Even though I knew he was gone, I knew where he’d gone, and why, I couldn’t believe he hadn’t found his way into my bed during the night.

I sat up and fumbled around until I found the lamp on the bedside table, thinking he might be in the room, watching me in the dark. With the pull of a chain, the room came to life. I scanned every inch of the pretty blue and white room.

He wasn’t there.

I got up and went to the door, opening it slowly. I felt strange facing Chester and Bella again. Tired as I’d been, I still remembered every bit of the story they’d told. I was the child of some kind of demon or beast or vampire. My blood was poisoned. Somehow, it didn’t seem right for me to be around them anymore. As if I were somehow evil, or the enemy. Too dirty to be in their nice house, around nice people.

I was worried they would be afraid of me.

But I couldn’t hide out in their guestroom all day.

I followed the aromas of bacon and coffee into the kitchen and found Bella at the stove.

“Oh good, you’re up,” she said, coming to greet me and check my temperature with the back of her hand. “I was of the mind we should take you back to the hospital, but Chester said to let you sleep. How do you feel?”

I wasn’t sure. I felt better than I had, stronger. “I’m thirsty. What are you doing?”

She hurried to fetch me a glass of water. “Me? I’m cooking breakfast. Do you think you can eat?”

I looked out the window and saw only the kitchen reflected off the glass. “At this hour? What’s happening?”

She handed me a glass of cool water. “This hour? It’s after six, hon. Time to get up. Chester went down the road to get his trailer back from Stu but he’ll be back in a minute.”

“I slept all day?”

She chuckled in her usual way, as if nothing had changed. “You slept all through the day and night, hon. It’s morning again.” She pulled on my arm. “Sit down at the table. You still look tired. You must be starving.”

Everything was so normal and calm, and Bella didn’t seem the least bit afraid of me, I began to wonder if I’d dreamed it all. “Damon went to Kentucky, right? It’s all real about the beast in the cave?”

She handed me a mug of coffee. “I’m afraid so. But we don’t talk about that, hon. You need to keep all that to yourself.”

I knew she was right but I wasn’t in a particularly good mood. “What difference does it make? People will just think I’ve gone crazy like Mama.”

“Now, I know people don’t think that.” She set a plate before me. “Eat your breakfast. David, or… Damon, left all your things on the porch. I can’t get used to that name. We brought it all inside where it’s safe. So don’t worry about anything.”

As soon as I’d finished eating, I wandered into the living room. My eyes landed on the silver briefcase and the rest of my luggage. Not just my suitcase, but all my boxes and things. As if Damon didn’t expect to return. Ever.

Letting him leave alone had been a mistake. I’d been too exhausted to think clearly. I needed to be with him.

I needed him to breathe. I needed him to survive.

Dr. Sanderson had told me that I suffered from dependent personality disorder, and maybe he was right, but this was much worse than needing familiar faces around to feel happy.

I stepped out to the porch, hoping for a glimpse of his red car, or a patch of his golden brown hair behind a hedge. Everything looked like him: the trees, the sky, and the sun peaking up from the east. Even Chester, as he walked up to the porch, had Damon’s face.

***

After a week, I had to go home. Bella and Chester seemed happy to have me staying with them, but I began to feel guilty imposing on their quiet life. I was with them night and day. I worked with them all day, helped Bella around the house, and then sat on their couch and watched television with them in the evening. My only escape was to visit my mother in the hospital.

I was also beginning to feel suffocated. As if I could never fully relax or catch my breath.

So I took the familiar roads back to my old house, feeling much stronger thanks to Bella’s home cooking, and plenty of rest.

Damon had left the money with me, and I had enough to rent a place of my own, maybe the Pickett’s garage apartment. But I wanted to be where Damon could find me when he came home.

Cynthia wasn’t glad to see me when I knocked on the front door. But I’d learned a trick from Damon – at the sight of cash she quickly changed her mind and decided I wasn’t so bad after all. Since Damon wasn’t with me. Looking down her nose, she agreed to let me have Gram’s old room. Mine and Damon’s room. She’d left it the way it was because of the red paint stains everywhere. I loved those red stains. They were Damon. They brought him close to me.

The rest of the house was changed, though, and I had to swallow a hard lump of annoyance. This wasn’t my house anymore, not that it ever really had been. She had rearranged the living room furniture, the house smelled like cigarette smoke, and her junk was everywhere. Everywhere but in my room, and Mama’s.

“How’s she doing?” Cynthia asked from the doorway when I went in to pack Mama a suitcase.

“She’s awake. She still doesn’t know who I am or where she is.”

I’d been to visit Mama twice in the past week. Cynthia hadn’t bothered. I barely managed to hide the burning feelings of anger beneath a cool façade.

“But she’s gonna be okay?” she asked.

“She’ll live.”
No thanks to you.
“They’re transferring her to the nursing home tomorrow. Doctor says she’ll get good care there. Though, she’ll never get any better. Her mind is gone.”

“Where? Here at the nursing home?”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“Forever, I guess. Until she dies.”